Wakashudo
by Small Fox
Summary: When Konohamaru accidentally interrupts Naruto during an embarrassing moment both of their lives are changed in unexpected ways. KonoNaru
1. Interruption

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters and gain nothing by writing this.

Author warning this story will eventually contain sexual scenes between Naruto and Konohamaru. You have been warned so don't complain.

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Naruto experienced a moment of disorientation when he first woke. He was definitely not on the futon that Tsunami had kindly provided them with while they were protecting her father, nor was he in his sleeping bag that he used while on the road. It took him almost a minute to remember he was back at his apartment after a month of absence. Rolling onto his side, he blearily opened his eyes and stared at his clock. It was past his normal wake up time, Kakashi sensei had given them the day off and he was still tired.

Rolling onto his stomach, fully intending on going back to sleep, he noticed something hard was poking into his stomach. He groaned annoyed, little Naruto had been giving him a lot of trouble lately. After all, he had been sleeping in the same room as Sasuke which prevented him from dealing with morning problems and after the battle with Zabuza on the bridge, Inari had been practically inseparable from him.

The little kid had almost been annoying, but to Naruto, who had spent most of his life alone, the companionship had been like water in a desert. They had even showered together to help prevent taxing the antiquated water heater from all the extra demands that were being placed on it. Of course this meant that he could never relieve himself, which had resulted in a few embarrassing nocturnal emissions. Fortunately, Iruka, in one of their more embarrassing conversations, had explained that could happen while he slept. What Iruka had not explained was how to prevent them, but in this one area Naruto was ahead of the curve. The orphanage had provided him with an advanced, if not spotty, knowledge on the subject.

Deciding it would probably just wake him if he didn't deal with it now, he rolled onto his back and lowered his pajama pants. Bringing his knees up to create a large tent with the sheet, he used his fingers to bring himself to full attention. Resigning himself to cleaning the sheets today, he started a rhythmic motion up and down the length of his four inch member. His mind was a blank, too tired to conjure any fantasies. It was purely mechanical relief.

However, Naruto's mind did snap to full attention when he heard the sound of his door's lock being picked. He sat up, alert, losing all interest in his previous activity. Embarrassment caused his member to shrivel, but he did not have the forethought to pull his pajamas up. His front door swung open a crack and a single eye appeared. Their gazes met for a minute and then the door swung open as Konohamaru let himself into his apartment.

Konohamaru stood there for a minute, a huge grin spread across his face with the lock pick kit still in his hand. Naruto was about to demand an explanation when the ninja in training suddenly broke into a run, shouting "Your back!" He leapt onto Naruto, whose eyes widened with the fear of being discovered.

Konohamaru landed on his chest and for the next few minutes they wrestled, the younger of the two having an unfair advantage. The wrestling caused Naruto's former condition to reappear. He had to make sure to keep Konohamaru away from that area and have the sheet well above his waist. The impromptu match lasted for several minutes, but Naruto eventually managed to get Konohamaru into a headlock, forcing the younger boy to surrender.

Naruto laid back down on his bed as Konohamaru rested against his knees, panting from the exertion. "That was unfair," the little brunette complained rubbing his head.

"You're the one who broke into my apartment and attacked me," he tried to sound angry, but at Konohamaru's crestfallen expression he nudged him with his knee and smiled to show there were no hard feelings.

Konohamaru grinned, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. "I just wanted to see you. Grandpa said you got back last night, but also told me that I should wait to see you because you might want to sleep in."

"So, you broke in to see if I was awake?" That kind of made sense, Naruto thought to himself.

"Well, Iruka sensei said we should practice as much as we can."

The reference to the Academy surprised Naruto. He had run into Konohamaru several times since the little kid had proclaimed himself as his rival and from what the kid had told him he hated the Academy. It seemed that a couple of the parents had told their children to befriend Konohamaru because of who his grandfather was, and they had told him as much. Although their situations were polar opposites, Naruto couldn't help but feel for the kid. After all, he knew what it was like to be judged by what you were instead of who you were.

"How is the Academy?" Naruto asked, trying to keep his mind off the fact that only a thin sheet was preventing him from an embarrassing situation.

"It's great," Konohamaru exclaimed with an impossibly wide grin spreading across his face. "I made two friends, Moegi and Udon." He looked away seemingly embarrassed, "Actually," he paused, "I kind of told them about you, and they kind of want to meet you. Their parents are civilians and they never met an actual ninja close to our age that they could talk to before." Konohamaru's brown eyes met his, practically pleading for him to agree.

Mentally, Naruto sighed, giving up on any more sleep. He couldn't deny his friend such a simple requestand it wasn't like he had planned to do anything else today. "Sure, just tell me where you want me to meet them and give me ten minutes to shower," and deal with little Naruto he thought to himself.

Konohamaru scratched the back of his head and looked away, "Well I'm supposed to meet them at the park at ten."

"Ten!" Naruto shouted. That was almost three hours away, the little twerp could have let him sleep a little longer.

Konohamaru had the decency to look embarrassed. "I was kind of hoping you could tell me about your mission before you met them."

Despite his irritation, Naruto saw an opening here, "Well I suppose I could tell you about it over a bowl of ramen at Ichiraku, my treat." He applauded his own cleverness since he had wanted to tell the story to Konohamaru anyways.

"Really!" The boy's eyes lit up and Naruto felt a warm feeling that normally he only felt around Iruka.

"Yeah, why don't you go ahead and order for us. Tell them I'll be down in five minutes to pay."

"Okay," Konohamaru agreed. He went to leave but chose the worst possible path for Naruto. During their wrestling match, Konohamaru had ended up on the far side of the bed and the quickest path to the door meant he had to climb over Naruto. The smaller boy's hand landed directly on Naruto's erection.

He gasped at the unexpected pressure and that caused Konohamaru to pause. After a second, he squeezed to get a better idea of what it was. Flushed with embarrassment, Naruto swatted the boy's hands away.

The younger of the two retreated, and for a moment, neither of them spoke. Konohamaru broke the silence by shyly saying, "You get those too? They're annoying aren't they?"

"Yeah," Naruto agreed.

"Now I'm getting one," Konohamaru added, looking down at his crotch which was starting to tent.

The older of the two paused before passing on a piece of advice that had been given to him by an older boy at the orphanage. "You can tuck it under your waist band and no one notices."

"I know that," the boy responded doing as he suggested. "I wish there was a way to get rid of them though. Last week, I woke up with one and I had to wait an hour before I could get back to sleep."

Naruto paused, wondering if he should pass on some more advice. Remembering that he had been even younger than Konohamaru when he had learned the secret to getting rid of them, he added, "There is a way." His younger friend looked at him expectantly, his expression torn between curious and embarrassed. "You just have to rub it."

"Rub it, against what?"

Unconsciously, Naruto tried to cringe into his pillow, wishing he could just say forget it. "No, you need to um," he used a hand gesture to show what he meant.

Konohamaru frowned confused, "Can you just show me?"

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. Somebody had shown him so it only seemed fair, but it was embarrassing. It was one thing to shower with someone, but to do that in front of somebody seemed weird. Still, Konohamaru eyes were pleading with him. Why didn't he know any Jutsu that could make himself invisible? "Alright," he sighed. "Can you get me some toilet paper?"

"Why?"

"Do you want me to show you or not?" Naruto snapped.

"Okay boss."

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed he kept himself covered with the sheet and wondered why his erection wasn't going down from embarrassment this time. Konohamaru returned, handing him the toilet paper.

"Ready?" He asked the smaller boy. Konohamaru nodded eagerly. Naruto spread his legs to give the best view and rested his heels on the box spring. He pulled the sheet off over his lap, revealing his member, which was sticking up towards his chin.

"Is that hair?" Konohamaru asked, leaning in for a closer look. Naruto's pubic hairs were blond and few which made them hard to see.

"Everybody gets them when you're older," Naruto answered, feeling a little uncomfortable with his friends close inspection. "Here, you do it like this." Making a ring with his thumb and index finger, he placed it on his hardened shaft before starting rhythmically moving his hand up and down. After a few strokes he glanced over at Konohamaru, his eyes were transfixed on Naruto's actions.

After a moment, Konohamaru lowered his own pants without looking and started mimicking his older friend. Naruto automatically compared his little friend's equipment to Inari. Although he had never seen Inari hard, he was pretty sure Konohamaru was bigger.

Then he started to feel the stirrings of an orgasm and thought no more. Increasing his speed he came with a groan, a single drop of liquid shot out and hit the floor, he sighed in contentment. Konohamaru was not far behind him. His face was scrunched with the new feelings coursing through his body. Unable to stand anymore, he collapsed to his knees, his stroking becoming more and more violent. Then he groaned and Naruto could tell that he had just had his first dry orgasm.

For a minute neither of them moved, enjoying the afterglow. Naruto recovered first, pulling up his pajamas and using the toilet paper to wipe up the spot on the floor. Konohamaru watched him, his face still flushed. "What's that?"

"Its sperm," unconsciously he used the technical term that Iruka had used when describing the basics of sex. Realizing his mistake and not wanting to get into that conversation, he quickly asked, "So, what did you think?

The brunette didn't answer at first, but without warning, he lashed out with his foot kicking Naruto playfully. "You could've told me it was going to feel so good."

"I thought I would let it be a surprise," he answered as Konohamaru pulled his pants back up.

Smiling at him shyly, the brunette said, "Thanks for showing me that. I always hated getting those things but now I can get rid of them and its fun too."

Naruto ruffled his friend's hair and passed on his last piece of sage advice on the matter. "Just make sure no one ever catches you doing it, and don't be so rough next time or you might hurt yourself."

"So is this what you were doing when I came in?" Konohamaru asked, trying to sound innocent.

Naruto felt his face blush with fresh embarrassment, "Keep asking and I won't tell you how I defeated a missing-nin!"

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TBC

Reviews will be appreciated.


	2. Helping Hand

Team seven tramped through the gates of Konoha. Each one of the genin carried a heavy burden. Kakashi turned to address his students, only carrying his omnipresent book. "It's too late to hand in our report tonight. We will meet at the normal spot at seven tomorrow to hand in the report. Don't forget to throw those bags into the bin outside of the Hokage tower." His single eye turned upward and he disappeared with a puff of smoke leaving three annoyed genin behind.

"If you had arrived on time, we would have been done on time," Sakura said to no one in particular.

"Yeah, maybe we could even gotten some training in," Naruto added. D-Ranked missions were doubly boring after their mission to Wave. Not that picking up trash along a ten mile stretch of road was ever something he ever looked forward too.

Sasuke chose not to add a comment and started walking, hoisting his bag full of garbage over his shoulder. After a minute, Sakura sensed his absence and hurried after him like a puppy following its master. Naruto followed, doing a fair impression of a dog himself.

"You want me to carry your bag for you Sakura?"

"I'm fine Naruto," the kunoichi answered, picking up her pace.

The blond Jinchuuriki shrugged a little disappointed. He was going to ask her out, but something was telling him he shouldn't push her right now. She had been a lot nicer since their first real mission, although asking her out still got him a generally violent no, but he believed he was wearing her down.

Caught up in daydreams of his pink haired beauty, he didn't notice that he had fallen in step with his other teammate. Then they both caught each other out of the corner of their eyes. Naruto thought how cool Sasuke thought he was especially after the battle with Haku and sped up. Not to be outdone, the avenger increased his speed, passing him. Grinding his teeth, Naruto broke into a run, followed shortly by his raven haired companion. Leaving their pink haired teammate in the dust wondering why her two teammates were acting so strange.

Naruto and Sasuke weaved through the crowded streets of Konoha. Sasuke avoided collisions with a preternatural grace that caused more than one kunoichi in training to blush, and the younger males to look on with envy. Naruto had less luck. He barely avoided collisions, often by only skittering to a stop or spinning out of the way.

Unfortunately, he forgot to factor in that he was carrying a large bag of garbage. This caused him to end up hitting many of the people he had just tried to miss, resulting in numerous shouts and curses. Naruto tried to apologize by shouting over his shoulder, but this only resulted in more near collisions.

If it had been a straight run, Naruto would've won, but the obstacles allowed Sasuke a commanding lead. Refusing to lose, the number one hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja decided to cheat. As Sasuke passed through the gate ahead of him that surrounded the tower, Naruto jumped onto the wall.

His competitor was already at the dumpster, lifting the lid and preparing to throw his bag in when Naruto made his move. Grabbing his own garbage bag with both hands, he threw it over his head. The bag tumbled end over end in an awkward arc. As if some divine force decided to finally even up the scales for the blond, it landed perfectly into the trash bin a second before his rivals.

"Yes, take that!" Naruto jumped with joy, but unfortunately, whatever divine force that might have guided the bag to the dumpster was no longer paying attention, and he slipped on the sloped roof and crashed to the ground in an ungraceful heap.

Naruto sat up, rubbing his head just in time to see Sasuke approach. He stopped several feet away and eyed the blond up-and-down. Concluding he had no injuries he simply said, "Idiot."

He glared at the raven haired boy's retreating back before getting up and dusting himself off. "Hey boss," Konohamaru's familiar voice called out. Turning, he saw the trio round the building, waving excitedly.

Waving back, Naruto hoped they had not seen what just happened. It had been three days since the incident, as he referred to it, had happened. Later that day he had met Konohamaru's two friends and he had ended up playing with them most of the day. It had been fun and all three of them seemed to look up to him and that in itself had made it worth the trouble. "Hey, guys. What's up?"

"I'm just giving them a tour," answered Konohamaru with a huge smile.

Udon, the quietest of the three, spoke up while pushing his glasses back up his nose, "Konohamaru received a bad grade on the test today and doesn't want to go home."

"Don't tell him that," Konohamaru elbowed Udon in the ribs. He pushed back and started a fight that caused both of them to fall to the ground. Naruto almost broke them up but it was clear they were just playing.

Moegi looked for a moment as if she wanted to join in, but turned to address Naruto. "Udon and I are neighbors. If we don't get going soon our moms won't let us stay out and play tomorrow."

It took a minute for the young jinchuuriki to realize what she was asking. Reaching down, he pulled Udon up by his belt and said, "Moegi said you are going to be late." Konohamaru protested but soon they were saying their goodbyes.

Before leaving, Moegi turned to face Naruto and said, "It was nice seeing you again Naruto."

Udon added sniffing. "Good luck with breaking the news about your test Konohamaru."

Konohamaru waived weakly as his two friends walked away, leaving him with the older blonde. Turning he asked, "So, you want to hang out?"

Naruto glanced down at his younger friend, trying to ignore his pleading eyes, "How bad did you do on the test?"

Looking away, the brunette kicked his toe into the dirt, "Seventy."

"That's not bad," in fact that was close to what he always got when he was still taking tests.

"He's not going to say that.. He'll say I will have to work harder and apply myself more. But its just math, it's not like I'm ever going to use it."

Naruto smiled, he had said almost the same thing to Iruka whenever he had taught something that was not ninja related. Of course, he had received similar lectures whenever he did poorly on tests, which was pretty much all the time. While he couldn't do anything about the lecture, he could delay it a little longer. "I'm going to have some ramen, you want to come along?"

"Yeah," Konohamaru grinned widely, happy with the reprieve.

Kneeling down, the blond said, "Hop on, we will go the fast way."

The honorable grandson wrapped his arms around Naruto's neck, after making sure his passenger had a secure grip, Naruto jumped to the top of the wall. Noticing Sakura coming down the street, still carrying her garbage bag, he paused, thinking he should say something but Konohamaru said into his ear, "Let's go."

Technically, running along the roofs was considered rude and should only be done in emergencies. Of course, Naruto consider cheering up Konohamaru to be an emergency and judging by his friend shouts of excitement, it was working. Besides, it wasn't like he hadn't seen other people doing it.

His building was the tallest in the immediate area, so jumping to the top was hard, especially with the extra weight on his back. Landing on his veranda, he dumped Konohamaru onto the floor laughing. "That was great. Can we do it again?"

"Maybe some other time," he headed toward his kitchen, pausing only to kick off his sandals and throw them by the door. Konohamaru did the same thing, neither of them saying anything. Stepping into his kitchen he started boiling the water for the ramen.

Konohamaru watched him silently, and with Naruto uncomfortable with the silence. "Um, so your parents won't be happy with your grade?"

"My parents are dead. I live with my grandfather."

If it was physically possible, Naruto would've kicked himself. "Sorry I um…"

The smaller of the two shrugged, "It's not a big deal. My dad died a few months before I was born, during the war with Kumogakure." He paused, "Grandpa said he was the last Konoha ninja to die in the war. My mom died when I was two from some sort of disease. I don't really think about them that much."

Naruto didn't know what to say so he said nothing. Although, he did notice that Konohamaru had looked away and sounded too casual about it.

"Do you think about your parents Naruto?"

The question caught the blond slightly off guard. When he was at the orphanage, he had been one of the few who never speculated about his parents. Part of him wanted to believe that they were great war heroes, but when he started to notice the angry glares some people gave him he had started to think darker things, like maybe they were traitors. Sometimes, he believed that his parents had hated him like everyone else and after learning about his tenant, that theory seemed more likely.

"Not really," he forced a grin, neither of them spoke until the teapot started to whistle. It was only after he had poured the boiling water into the instant ramen that he realized there was only one chair in his kitchen. Thinking fast, he put Konohamaru's bowl by the chair, trying to be polite and seated himself on the corner of his table. Konohamaru copied his actions, leaving the chair empty. They grinned at each other and both started eating.

"Hey boss, I was actually hoping I would run into you today."

"Mm," Naruto answered, his mouth stuffed full of noodles.

The younger of the two fidgeted nervously. "It's not a big deal, but my birthday is coming up, and my grandpa always throws me a party but they're always kind of boring. This year though, Udon and Moegi are coming, so it might not be so bad and I was…" He trailed off, swinging his legs nervously. After a minute he blurted out, "I was hoping you would come to.."

Naruto bit his noodles off in mid swallow. In his thirteen years of life, nobody had ever invited him to a birthday party before. He almost jumped on the opportunity until a thought occurred to him. "What time is it?"

"Two days from now, it starts at four thirty and goes to seven," Konohamaru supplied.

Biting on his lower lip, Naruto answered, "I might still be doing a mission, but I'll try."

"It's not a big deal or anything." Konohamaru put the bowl to his mouth and slurped the remaining broth. Wiping his mouth with his forearm, he grinned over at his friend who suddenly felt very uncomfortable. "I'm probably going to be grounded until my birthday because of that test. So, do you think we could do one more thing together?"

"What?" he questioned warily.

"Well, I did that thing you showed me last night and I kind of had this idea."

"Idea?"

The dark-haired boy nodded, "I was thinking how great it felt, but using your own hand is kind of distracting. So, I thought if somebody else did it for you it would feel even better."

"Konohamaru, guys really don't do that sort of thing."

"Oh come on," hopping off the table, his bare feet made a plopping sound. His friend stared up at him his eyes pleading. "I'll do it for you if you do it for me, just once, it can be a birthday present."

Naruto looked away and scratched the back of his head thinking, but already feeling a stirring at the thought. He supposed it couldn't hurt. "I suppose we could give it a try," Naruto said defeated.

"Great, come on let's go," Konohamaru said running out of the room, hopping every few steps in excitement. Naruto followed, tucking his semi hard penis under his waistband for convenience.

"Okay, you lie down and lower your pants. I'll lie on top of you." The little kid was bouncing up and down, clearly excited in more than one way.

Lying on his bed, he felt his own member starting to strain against his waistband. Apparently, the idea of somebody else touching it was more exciting than he first thought. Propping himself up on his elbows, he watched as his friend lowered his own pants and a set of blue boxers before stepping out of them. Konohamaru climbed into the bed, only wearing his yellow shirt and scarf, his little pecker swinging from side to side.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Naruto asked, his mouth dry.

"Yes," Konohamaru responded, trying to find a comfortable spot on top of him. Eventually, he settled with his head under Naruto's chin. It was a little uncomfortable for the older of the two at first, his own erection was being squashed, but one last adjustment caused him to gasp. Konohamaru's butt crack had lined up perfectly with his penis and even through his thin boxers, the feeling gave him a tingly sensation in his stomach.

He closed his eyes for a second, letting the feeling wash over him. Opening them again, he couldn't really see his target since his friend's head was in the way. So, he used his right hand to trace Konohamaru's inner thigh. His callused hand came into contact with smooth skin. His fingers slowly moved down to his goal.

The back of his hand touched the soft, but firm, skin of his friend's sack and for a second, he paused. He had never touched another boy and it was kind of weird, but Konohamaru's whimper urged him on. Wrapping his thumb and forefinger around the little shaft, he thought how weird it felt. It was like a finger, but it was warm to the touch and although hard, it definitely didn't have a bone.

Remembering some of the things he liked to do, Naruto used his ring finger to tickle the underside of his friend's sack. Meanwhile, his middle and pinky went to either side and gave a gentle squeeze. Konohamaru thrust into his hand, which caused his butt to slide down his shaft, causing the blonde to bite down hard on his lip to muffle a groan.

Deciding to stop teasing his friend, he started stroking up and down his shaft. Konohamaru responded by thrusting in rhythm.. Soon, too soon for Naruto, his friend gasped and arched his back with his little shaft spasming before coming back down, and sliding to Naruto's side. The blonde could feel he was close. His hand tried to finish the job but was stopped.

"I promised I would do it," Konohamaru said, slapping his hand away. The boy quickly repositioned himself, sensing the urgency. His little hand plunged into his friend's boxers opening and grabbed Naruto's special place. Using his other hand to free it from his waistband, he pulled it out and with one upward stroke Naruto ejaculated in what he would consider one of his best orgasms in his short life. Unfortunately, Konohamaru's face had been close to Naruto's shaft and he tumbled backwards, falling off the bed in surprise.

The blonde fought through the haze of afterglow, hoping his friend wasn't hurt. "Konohamaru I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

The kid was already sitting up and waving Naruto off, saying, "I'm okay." He brushed the stuff off of his cherry red cheek and looked at it curiously. "What's this stuff for anyways?"

Naruto sat back on his haunches, embarrassed because of what happened and the question itself. Hesitating for only a minute, he answered, "If it goes into a girl it can make a baby."

Konohamaru worked the stuff between two fingers before sniffing it curiously and then, before Naruto could stop, him he touched the stuff to his tongue.

"Don't do that," Naruto shouted too late.

His friend looked up at him, "I was just curious."

"It's disgusting."

"But women do it."

Even without the afterglow, the blondes mind would have had trouble wrapping around that. "Hum?"

"Well, how else can it get into her stomach to make a baby," the little boy demanded with a smug sense of superiority.

Naruto really did try to suppress his smile, "Um Konohamaru, it doesn't work that way. It goes into the women's privates."

"Oh," his cheeks might have reddened, it was hard to tell. "So theirs work both ways?"

"What do you mean?"

"Stuff goes in and out?" Konohamaru asked looking away embarrassed.

"Yeah," Naruto had never really thought of it that way, but by the time Iruka had gotten around to that part, he had been hiding underneath a desk from embarrassment. For a moment, neither of them said anything but then he gave into his curiosity and asked sheepishly, "What did it taste like?

Konohamaru shrugged, "Nothing really. It felt kind of greasy and there's this weird salty aftertaste, but it's just sort of there." After another moment, Konohamaru grabbed his pants with his clean hand and asked, "Bathroom?"

Naruto pointed, putting his own pants back on and a moment later both of them looked presentable. "Somebody might start worrying if you don't go home soon."

His friend sighed, "I guess you're right." He started to put on his sandals, but paused. "Hey Naruto, that was a lot of fun, you think we could do it again sometime?"

"Maybe," he really wanted to say no, but it had felt kind of nice. "Konohamaru," he called out as he was about to leave, "I'm really going to try and come to your party, but I can't promise."

"I hope you can make it," Konohamaru smiled as he closed the door behind him. After he left, Naruto lay back on his bed and thought what he could buy Konohamaru for a present. Then he remembered he hadn't finished his ramen earlier and decided now was a good time to finish it.

In the Hokage tower, an old man leaned away from a crystal ball. Sarutobi really wished he hadn't used the Telescope Technique to find his wayward grandson, but he had started to worry about him. Now he wished he had waited a few more minutes, but he had seen what he had seen and would have to handle it now. How exactly he was going to handle it was still unclear to him.


	3. Birthday Party

Naruto was nervous. It wasn't a wholly unfamiliar feeling to him, but this was the first time in a long time that the feeling was not accompanied with an imminent threat to his life. Still, he had promised he would try to be here and there was nothing holding him back now. Kakashi had dismissed team seven unusually early. So, there was no reason he couldn't attend Konohamaru's party. Gripping his present in his hand, he marched to the door and rung the doorbell.

A moment later the door opened revealing a dark-haired red eyed woman. It took him a minute to remember that her name was Kurenai. She was a sensei to one of the other teams, although he couldn't remember which one at the moment. "I think I have the wrong place," Naruto said double-checking to make sure this was the Hokage's residents.

She smiled kindly and replied, "If you're here for the party they're in the courtyard."

Stepping inside, he followed her down a hallway, uncomfortable with the silence, he racked his brain for something clever to say. "So, why are you here?"

Glancing over her shoulder, she blushed, which seemed odd to him. "Somebody forgot to pick up the cake. He asked me to do it and I was invited to stay."

Naruto nodded and before he had to come up with another clever thing to say they were in the courtyard. It was a fairly large open space, probably bigger than his apartment. It had a small tree in the center, but most of the ground was paved with stone.

The weirdest thing, though was the table that had been set up. It had several small presents on it, but the thing that drew his attention was the Hokage. He sat smoking his pipe, but in his civilian clothes, he looked strange and Naruto suddenly understood why he never took off the hat. He was bald! Before he could take in anything else, he was blindsided by three hyperactive children.

"You made it!" Konohamaru exclaimed as he rebounded off of him.

Kurenai relieved Naruto of his present as he was pulled into the first of many party games. Most of them were new to him, but he had fun. Several hours later, his pockets were full of candy and he had joined the elite rank of ninjas who could claim they had hit the Hokage and live to tell about it. Granted, he had been blindfolded at the time, but Asuma insisted it counted.

Eventually, it came time for cake and he took a seat between Udon and Moegi. The latter of the two unexpectedly leaned against him and smiled up at him. Her cheeks reddened as she asked, "Hey, Naruto if you have free time, do you think you can play with us again?"

"Sure," he responded without thinking. It never occurred to him that he was agreeing to play with little kids, something both his age and profession made unusual.

After the cake was devoured, it was time for presents and he started to feel a little nervous. He had never given a gift to somebody else before. Well, unless you include the flowers he had given Sakura when he was younger. So Naruto had to guess what Konohamaru might like, so he bought something he would've liked. Still, he was nervous as his friend started to tear into his presents.

From his grandfather and uncle, he received various ninja material. Udon gave a big book of brainteasers and a piece of paper that said good for one free homework assignment, which was immediately confiscated. Moegi's gift was some sort of game that was supposed to be played outside called lawn darts. Then there was only his gift left. Unconsciously, he bit his lip and scrunched his toes, hoping his friend wouldn't have to force a smile when he opened it.

Being unfamiliar with wrapping presents, Naruto had used more than half a roll of tape and a little too much paper. This prolonged his agony as Konohamaru tore, ripped and scratched his way through layers of colorful paper. Slowly, the gift was revealed. It was a construction set that used magnets, instead of plastic blocks.

Konohamaru face lit up as he shouted, "Thanks. I've been bugging grandpa for these." To his surprise, his friend came around the table and gave his best attempt of a bone crushing hug. All Naruto could do was grin, glad that he had chosen a good gift.

It wasn't long after that the party started to break up, Moegi and Udon saying they had a curfew. As they were saying their goodbyes to Konohamaru, the Hokage leaned over and asked if Naruto would speak to him privately for a few minutes. The blonde agreed, a little nervous about the sudden serious tone in the old man's voice.

The two retreated to the study and the old man gestured for him to take a seat in an overly plushy chair. Naruto collapsed in to it with a grin as the thick cushions encompassed his small body. "So, what do you want old man?"

Sarutobi smiled indulgently as he took a seat across from him. "I would like to speak to you as the Hokage for a moment."

"Aren't you always?" The blonde questioned confused.

"No," the old man laughed. "For the rest of this conversation I'm just a grandfather."

"Okay," Naruto nodded, seriously not really understanding.

Leaning back in his chair, the old man began. "Out of your entire class, I think you have come the furthest in your abilities since you're graduation. You still have a lot to learn, of course, but you have turned into a fine genin. I read your sensei's report about your Wave mission with great interest. I think you have the potential to be a great ninja one day as long as you continue to work hard."

The genin scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously, "Well that's what I've always told people."

"Yes, but you also have been a great influence for my grandson, and I'm not just referring to the fact that he stopped trying to assassinate me. He's working hard at the physical aspects of his training, if not his mental. He's even made some good friends and I think you've had a lot to do with all that."

"Well, he's a nice kid," Naruto said, not having any idea why they were talking about this.

The old man continued, "I'm not happy about everything you taught him though."

The orange clad genin winced, "Is this about that jutsu?" He was starting to recognize the tone of a lecture coming.

Sarutobi coughed to hide a sudden colored rush to his cheeks. "No, well, there's that too, but I was referring to something else." He paused for a second to see if his companion would catch on. Naruto didn't, so he continued. "Something you too might have done last time you were together," He permitted the sentence to hang in the air.

If Naruto had been standing, he would've fallen to the ground as pure unadulterated terror course through his body. He opened his mouth but no sound came out, he tried to figure out how the old man could have learned about that. There was no way Konohamaru would have told his grandfather of all people. Oh why hadn't he learned a jutsu that could turn him invisible, or better to water, so he could just melt right through the floor and disappear.

"Relax Naruto, if I had thought you had done something bad, we would be having this conversation in a different location. I just want to know how it happened."

Those words were like a lifeline to a drowning man. He shook himself as he slowly realized that he may not be in trouble after all. Despite all that, he still couldn't meet the elder's eyes and instead concentrated on the floor. "Well," he began slowly "the morning after I came back from the Wave mission I was sort of in the middle of something when Konohamaru sort of picked my lock and let himself in."

"I see, he does seem to have a talent for that, picking locks I mean. So he caught you, um, relieving yourself and you explain what you were doing," The Hokage supplied. Naruto nodded, not wanting to explain the complicated situation. "Then what about the other time?"

He further retreated into the chair, his face turning red. "Konohamaru was curious what it would feel like if somebody else did it for you and so was I so."

"I see," the old man held up a hand to stop him. "So, he initiated it both times?"

"Initiated?"

"Started it."

"I guess so."

The old man nodded to himself before rising from his chair. "I thought it might be something like that. I can't say I'm happy he found out about it that way, but it wasn't like he wasn't going to find out eventually. Anyway, it isn't like it can really hurt him." He thumbed through one of the numerous shelves that lined the walls before picking out a thin white book.

"Konohamaru is very precious to me. He's my daughter's son after all, and the way my son behaves he'll probably be my only grandchild. Unfortunately, I know that an old man like me can't always be there for him. Have you ever heard of Wakashudo, Naruto?"

The genin blinked at the apparent sudden change in conversation. "Um no," The word itself sounded old to him. After all, who said something like the way of the youth anymore?

"I'm not surprised," the old man said sitting back down. "It was going out of fashion back when I was your age and it was always more of a samurai thing. That's not to say ninja didn't do it, but well never mind." He waved his hand dismissively and continued. "Basically it's a form of mentoring, an older individual would take the younger person under their wing and help them become a man. These bonds could lead to lifelong friendships, but in its early years, this friendship often had a sexual nature to it."

If it was possible, the blonde's face darkened further, putting Hinata's best impression of a cherry tomato to shame. The older man handed over the white book, which he took with trembling hands. It had a simple cover with the title of Wakashudo A Guide in large block letters. Under the title there was a black-and-white picture of a chrysanthemum, Naruto briefly wondered why he knew the name of that particular flower.

"I don't want to force you into anything and the final decision does lie with Konohamaru alone. However, if the situation does progress that way, I want you to know. I don't think he could choose a better person. I saw that today, you generally like him and there's no way you would ever consciously hurt him. You would have my blessing." He leaned forward and put a hand on the genin's shoulder. "Now, I think it's time for you to go home."

It took Naruto a minute to have the confidence to stand. The last few minutes ranked high on his weird scale and he clasped the book to his chest, not really wanting to take it. The Hokage held the door open for him and he traced his steps back to the courtyard.

"Hey Naruto," Konohamaru said jumping in front of him "you want to see if you can spend the night?"

Before he could say anything, the Hokage answered for him. "Maybe some other time Konohamaru, you still have to visit your parents."

"Oh come on," Konohamaru complained.

"Don't take that tone with me. I asked you if you wanted to pay your respects before or after your party and you said after."

Naruto used the argument to slip away unnoticed and by the time he was at the front door he could hear his young friend arguing loudly. Smiling to himself, he headed for his apartment, deciding it had been a good day even if it had become a little strange there in the end. Although the book was in his hand he didn't really think about it until he was back at his place.

Tossing the white book on his kitchen table he stared at it for several minutes, like it was a trap he had to disarm. Unfortunately, curiosity was something the blonde had in spades and he cracked the cover to skim the first chapter. It was written in an old style which was a little confusing, but it basically described how important the relationship could be to both parties. Then, a particular section caught his eye.

"The younger partner is the only one who can advance the relationship. While it is the responsibility of the elder to keep the health and well-being of the younger forethought in his mind and must always be a proper and responsible role model." That caused him to smile as he remembered how he had been introduced to everything.

The orphanage wasn't really a bad place. The three-story building had had the boy's dorm on the top floor while the girl's were on the second. The first floor was separated into a nursery, playrooms and classrooms.

Six year old Naruto woke up in his bunk bed and glanced around his room. Like all the rooms on the floor it had two bunk beds, but he currently only had one roommate which allowed both of them to have the top bunk. Blinking blearily, he tried to figure out why he was awake when the pressure in his bladder reminded him of his need.

Slipping quietly out of bed, he left his room for the dimly lit hallway. His always overactive imagination transformed the simple task of going to the bathroom into a dangerous mission of the utmost importance to the village. His bare feet made little sound as he crept down the hallway to his destination. Pausing at the bathroom door, he listened intently for enemies like in the stories before opening the door.

The bathroom was brightly lit but he still pushed his back against the wall and scanned the room for his goal, a urinal. Then a sound and broke into his imaginary world. Listening carefully, he tried to identify where the sound was coming from. The room was big and it took him a moment to realize the sound was coming from one of the stalls.

It sounded like groaning and there was another sound he couldn't identify. Thinking the person might be hurt or in trouble, he knelt down and found the stall with the legs in it. He considered calling out to them but something told him not to. Creeping up to the stall, Naruto tried to peer through a crack but couldn't see anything. Kneeling on the floor, he peeked under the door.

Souya, one of the older boys, sat on the edge of the toilet seat, his eyes closed and pants around his ankles. The little boy frowned confused. It looked like the older boy was trying to pull his privates off or like he was trying to stretch it. Neither made any sense to him.

Then the older boy's eyes opened and saw him. His face turned crimson and Naruto knew he was going to get pounded. Scrambling to his feet, he bolted for the door as the stalled doors flung open behind him and a hand grabbed his neck.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't hurt me." he flung his hands up to protect his head.

"How long were you there?" Souya demanded, grabbing one of his arms.

Naruto noticed he wasn't getting pounded and calmed down, if only a little, since he was still being restrained. "I had to go to the bathroom and I heard this noise and thought somebody might be in trouble and I want to look, and I'm sorry."

The older boy didn't say a thing for a minute and then he asked, "Well did you go yet?" Naruto shook his head nervously. "Go then," Souya let him go, pushing him toward the urinals. The younger of the two did as he was told, nervous that the other boy was still staring at him. "You can't tell anyone what you saw."

"I won't."

"Good, because I would get in trouble," the older boy paused for a minute before adding "and so would you." The last part caused the blonde to spin around frowning, trying to figure out what he had done wrong. "You see that's a secret ninja training technique and you're not supposed to know it yet."

The little blonde's obsession with all things ninja was well-known and the older boy smiled as he asked, "Really?"

"Yeah, I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you how to do it, but you can never tell anyone and if you get caught doing it, you can't say I showed you."

The young Jinchuriki nodded eagerly and crossed his heart in the most solemn act of secrecy a six-year-old knew. Following his elder into a stall, he was told to sit on the toilet and pull his pajama bottoms down. He hesitated knowing he wasn't supposed to do that in front of others.

The taller of the two said, "Listen, you saw me do it right? So you know it's okay. I just got to show you what to do." Biting his lower lip, Naruto did what he was told. "Okay, this is a two-step process. First you have to make it hard and then you have to jerk."

"Make it hard?" Naruto had no idea how that was possible.

"Here," the other boy was starting to get agitated and before the six-year-old knew what he was doing, the other boy grabbed his thing.

He yelped in surprise and embarrassment, but at the same time it sent a surprising feeling through him. It sort of tickled but it was different. After a few seconds of fondling, it became hard. He stared at it in amazement. Now that he thought about it, this had happened before, but only when he really had to pee.

"Okay, once it's hard like that you just kind of pull on it." His teacher showed him with his hand. Frowning, he gave it a few experimental strokes. "Just keep doing it until you get a good feeling and it goes down. You want to do it for as long as possible to build up your stamina."

Naruto nodded and concentrated. His concentration was so thorough, he didn't notice when Souya left, leaving him alone. Eventually, he felt like he was going to pee but he kept on going, figuring he was already on the toilet and he felt the feeling that left him breathless. Looking up, he wanted to ask if that was it, but found he was alone in the room.

Pulling himself out of his memories, Naruto smiled sadly to himself, remembering how gullible he had been back then. He had believed him. For a long time he did believe it was training. He had a lot of questions but Souya ignored him. Two weeks later Souya moved out of the orphanage with the rest of the soon-to-be graduates from the Academy.

It was when he remembered how confused he had been back then and how frustrated he had become that he made his decision. If Konohamaru had questions, he would do his best to answer them. As for the other stuff, well, he didn't know. One thing was sure, though, he would do his best to be there for him because no one had been there for him.

* * *

TBC


	4. Imitation

Naruto crouched behind a tree. He knew he was surrounded, although he didn't know exactly where they were. Clasping his remaining shuriken, he closed his eyes, listening for the smallest sound. Like the sound of a leaf being crushed underfoot. He smiled, they were right behind him.

He spun and threw his weapons in one fluid motion. They flew straight and true, bouncing off of Moegi's and Udon's chests. Running over to retrieve his paper weapons, he listened knowing that Konohamaru was still out there. Ordinarily, he would have cut them a little slack, but his pride had been smashed by those foreign ninjas they had run into earlier that day.

If he ran into that makeup wearing teen again he was going to pound him for the way he treated Konohamaru and for making him look like a fool. It didn't help that Sasuke had been the one that had come to the rescue. Both Moegi and Udon had bombarded him with questions about the raven haired boy and that had annoyed him to no end. At least that had stopped when he started playing ninja with them and even Konohamaru had put the incident behind him.

Picking up his toy weapons, he didn't notice the identical sly smiles his two small friends shared with each other. Then he felt a toy shuriken hit him right between his shoulders, ending the game.

"Gotcha," Konohamaru shouted from a nearby tree branch as his two friends burst into laughter. Naruto forced a smile, realizing he had been tricked.

"Konohamaru your plan was brilliant," Moegi said after she had calmed down.

"Yeah, maybe Naruto should go back to the Academy for some more training," Udon added sniffing.

"Well, it's not like it would've worked on a real mission," Naruto said a tad defensively.

Konohamaru, still standing on the tree branch, shouted, "You're just jealous of my mad ninja skills," he pointed at Naruto to emphasize his words. The action unbalanced him. Falling foreword he wildly tried to grasp something but only found air.

Darting foreword, Naruto jumped and caught the falling boy, preventing an unscheduled meeting with the ground. Landing on his back, he slid for several feet across the forest floor, his friend clasped tightly to his chest before coming to a stop.

"That was close, hum Konohamaru?" The boy, still stunned, could only nod.

The other two ran over, and after seeing that Konohamaru was safe, praised Naruto for his quick actions. The young jinchuriki blushed from the attention but was secretly pleased as he replaced Sasuke as the trio's hero of the moment. All was right in the world again.

As the sun was starting to set they broke up, exhausted and happy. Udon and Moegi had to run home as their supper would soon be ready and neither wanted to be grounded for the following day. Naruto was about to leave himself when Konohamaru grabbed his arm.

"Um, what are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"I was going to go to Ichiraku and then back to my place for the night."

"Can I come with you?"

"Don't you have to get home too?"

His little friend shook his head, "Grandpa said he would be working late. Besides, he said as long as I am with you I can stay out as late as I want."

At first Naruto didn't believe Konohamaru. True, he never had parents, but even the orphanage had a curfew as did everyone else he had known at his age. Then he remembered a little talk he had with the Hokage and the little book he hadn't quite finished. He probably expected that he would get his grandson home at a reasonable time. With the Chunnin Exam coming up he probably was working late. "I suppose I could treat you to a bowl at Ichiraku."

The kid's eyes lit up with joy and they went off to have dinner together. Ichiraku was fairly crowded and they had to wait several minutes before two spots opened up at the counter. The two chatted of inconsequential things until the subject of the Academy came up. Konohamaru's grades were not that great, although Naruto's had been worse, it bothered him, though he didn't know why.

Slurping down the remaining broth, Konohamaru patted his stomach, "That was really good."

"Yeah, this place has the best." Naruto spoke loudly, half hoping that one of the two cooks would overhear his complement. When he had been younger, such complement sometimes got him a second bowl for free. Unfortunately, they were too busy with other customers. Ruffling his friend's hair affectionately, he said, "Goodnight."

"Wait," Konohamaru grabbed his hand, "Can we go back to your place? There's something I need to ask you."

"Ask," Naruto was a little wary about inviting his friend back to his place. The last two times they had been there they had done something. Even with the okay from his grandfather, he still wasn't sure about everything.

"Um, can we go to your place, it's kind of private," Konohamaru blushed a little.

Eying his friend, he leaned close and whispered, "I'm too tired to do anything." That was a lie. After ingesting a bowl of the life-giving ramen he felt like he could take on the Hokage himself.

The boy nodded solemnly and Naruto hurried the two of them back to his place, half suspecting treachery from his younger friend. After entering his apartment he flipped on a light and crossed his arms. "All right, what is it that you had to come all the way here to tell me?"

"Well, I only noticed it this morning. I wanted to ask you right away, but there were classes and then we were playing and let me just show you." Konohamaru tugged on his pants when Naruto stopped him.

"The pants stay on." He wasn't sure how he knew but he was sure if they came off they would end up doing something again.

"Please, I don't know what to do and you're the only one I trust," Konohamaru's eyes started to water and Naruto relented, starting to worry what could upset his friend so much.

Lowering his pants and boxers, which were a tan color this time, he shifted towards the light. Taking his little shaft in hand, he turned it slightly, "See?"

Kneeling down to get a better look, he frowned and then had to fight back a laugh. There was a little red spot where his shaft met his sack. "Konohamaru, have you been doing it a lot lately?" The question wasn't necessary. Clearly he had rubbed it raw.

His friend became very interested in the floor as he answered, "Well, I was grounded until yesterday and I wasn't even allowed to play with my toys, just study."

So you play with the one toy they can't take away, Naruto thought to himself. "You're fine, just don't do it for a few days." A similar thing had happened to him shortly after his first time too, but with no one to turn to he had abandoned doing it for half a year.

"Isn't there something you can do to make it feel better?" Konohamaru pleaded.

"When I run, it brushes up against my boxers and it's really distracting when my class is doing laps."

Naruto was about to say no when an idea occurred to him. About a year ago, he had a really bad cold and had missed several days at the Academy. It was one of the few times he had actually been sick. By the time Iruka had visited him, his nose and upper lip was dry and cracked from all the blowing. His sensei had bought him a big bottle of hand lotion to help him heal. The spot was different, but the idea was the same. "Wait here, I might have something."

Rummaging under his bathroom sink for the lotion, he wondered why he had half this stuff under here. In the back, underneath several loose plastic bags, he found it. Returning, he handed Konohamaru the bottle and said, "Rub some of this stuff on the sore spot and it will speed up the healing."

"Didn't you just say I shouldn't rub it?"

"Well yeah, but just put the stuff on the sore spot."

His friend hopped up on the bed, his pants around his ankles. Pumping the handle until there was a glob of lotion in his little hand, he brought it to his sore spot. The moment the lotion came in contact with the skin though he yelped, recoiling from his own touch.

"It's cold." Konohamaru looked up at his blonde friend. "I can't do it. Will you do it for me?"

The desperation in his friend's voice, combined with the fact that he had already touched his privates, made the request a lot less awkward than it otherwise would have been. He sighed, resigning himself to his fate, "All right, just lay down, it will be easier that way."

Naruto dipped two fingers into Konohamaru's cupped hand, using only a portion of the lotion that was there. Leaning across his friend's legs, he positioned the shaft with one hand and used the other to apply the lotion to the irritated spot.

A strange thing started to happen. As the small boy winced at the cold contact, his sack, which was already tight against his body, seemed to tighten further while his shaft became hard. His friend groaned, "Naruto, please could you do it for me. I'll do you."

The blonde smiled to himself, having figured out once he started to get hard that this was going to happen. Carefully placing his thumb and forefinger on to the shaft, he started stroking up and down, being careful not to hit the sore spot. His friend squirmed under his ministrations before trying to thrust in rhythm with him. Unfortunately, with Naruto lying across his legs, his efforts were fruitless. Still, Naruto did notice that his one slick finger seemed to be moving more smoothly up and down the little shaft.

Suddenly, his friend's face flushed with color as his eyes squeezed shut, and he could tell that he had reached orgasm even without the twitching member in his hand. His friend was dead to the world for a minute before he looked up and smiled, "It's your turn."

The blonde blushed but didn't protest this time. His penis was hard and was in need of relief. Although, since he wasn't being stimulated like he had been last time, he was sure he wouldn't accidentally come in Konohamaru's face. Sitting up and loosening his pants, he suddenly noticed something.

The hand that Konohamaru had put the lotion in had been squeezed tightly when he had orgasmed, and it now ooze between his fingers and onto the sheets. His friend followed his gaze and grimaced, "Sorry." He tried rubbing his hands together to get rid of the lotion, but there was still too much and he had to rub the rest onto his stomach, under his shirt. After a second, he kicked off his pants and slipped off his shirt because it was clinging to his stomach.

Naruto's mouth suddenly became as dry as the desert that surrounded a sauna. While he had seen Konohamaru's package before and had even jerked him off twice, this was the first time he had seen him naked from head to toe. If it was anatomically possible, he swore he became even harder. Konohamaru said something but he couldn't hear. "What did you say?"

"I said lay down. I want to try something new," his friend smiled mischievously.

"What are you going to do?" Naruto questioned, he had done a lot of experimenting at first too, but that doesn't mean he wanted to be Konohamaru's guinea pig.

"Don't worry, you'll like it," his friend said, lowering his new goggles over his eyes.

"What are you doing?" The older of the two asked, worry slipping into his tone.

The brunette blinked, his goggles giving him a fisheye appearance. "Well, last time some of that stuff almost got in my eye," he tapped the goggles "safety first. Now spread your legs a little."

Blushing in embarrassment, he spread his legs, placing his heels between his mattresses. He watched as Konohamaru grasped his member with both hands. From there, he started to rub back and forth like he was trying to start a fire with a stick.

Naruto wasn't sure if it was the new motion or the lotion that seemed to be making his little friend's hands feels so good, but he had to bite his lip to fight from moaning. It didn't feel better, but it was different. Crossing his arms behind his head, he sat back and enjoyed the sensation. The lubrication made Konohamaru's hands fly back and forth with a sound that oddly reminded him of a wet dog shaking itself dry.

His orgasm approached slowly, building bit by bit over several minutes. Konohamaru was working hard, sweat breaking out on his poor head with an intensive look of concentration on his face. The buildup was painfully slow and Naruto was about to reach down and finish himself off when he felt it. A warm liquid shot up the shaft and exploded out in a toe curling ejaculation. They both collapsed, Naruto from pleasure and Konohamaru from exhaustion. For a moment, he lay there panting, before sitting up and looking down at his friend.

The little kid grinned up at him. "What did you think?"

The blonde thought for a minute, which was way more difficult than usual because of the afterglow. "It was okay."

He smiled to himself as Konohamaru slapped his leg playfully. "Okay? It was just okay?"

He shrugged elaborately when he started to notice how clammy he felt down there. "I'm getting a washcloth." Without waiting for a response he slipped out of the room, heading for his bathroom. Grabbing the item in question, he soaked it in the sink. Cleaning his equipment, he returned in his bedroom but froze in the doorway.

During his absence, Konohamaru had moved over to his desk and stood leaning against it, making no effort to cover himself. This sight stirred something in the pit of Naruto's stomach but that wasn't what had stopped him in his tracks. In his friend's hands was the book that the Hokage had lent to him the other day. Naruto blushed as he remembered where exactly he had stopped reading. The last third of that little white book was dedicated to various sexual positions. "Hey, don't go through my stuff," Naruto shouted, more embarrassed than anything else.

The boy looked up from the book and grinned, ignoring what he had just said. "Hey, can we try this?" He flipped the book over which had an illustrated image of two males, one younger and the other older. They lay facing each other, their erections grinding against the other. It was entitled frottage.

"Konohamaru I," he trailed off. His friend was smiling and his own penis was already coming back to life, even after his recent ejaculation. "If you really want too."

His friend jumped in the air, giggling in excitement. Naruto removed his coat and shirt, joining his friend on the bed. Despite their mutual enthusiasm, neither of them knew how to start and they just sort of sat there, staring at each other for a minute. The older of the two broke the silence, scratching the back of his head nervously. "I guess I'll just lay down and," he trailed off.

"Yeah, that sounds good," the brunette nodded, smiling to himself.

Lying on his back, Naruto was starting to have second thoughts but before he could voice them, Konohamaru hopped on top of him and their two sacks touched. The feeling was mind-bending. The smaller of the two was soft and smooth and the older of the two was almost identical, except for a few sparse hairs. For a moment, the smaller shifted back and forth rubbing their sacks together. He smiled, "It kind of tickles."

The blonde could only grunt in agreement, temporary forgetting how to speak. He brought up one of his knees and nudged his friend in the back. Taking the hint, he lowered himself onto his older friend's chest, bringing their shafts together for the first time. Konohamaru wrapped his arms around Naruto and the older reciprocated. The shifting rubbed their poles together which caused the older of the two to tighten his grip, bringing them closer together.

One of them started to thrust into the other and soon they were both going at it in an arrhythmic pattern that neither of them tried to synchronize. Before Naruto realized what he was doing, he had rolled Konohamaru onto his back, taking the top position. He continued to thrust against his partne, who wrapped his legs around him.

For several minutes the only sounds in the apartment was the squeaking of the bed and the panting of the boys. Perhaps, because he had longer to recover, Konohamaru was the first to orgasm for a second time that day. He went limp as Naruto finished, only a few seconds later. Naruto's orgasm was almost dry, but there was a little squirt of warm liquid between their two bellies.

Collapsing onto the bed, he rolled over, pulling his friend with him. They lay together in each other's arms, neither saying anything. Eventually, Konohamaru turned his face up and their eyes met. His little friend's face was flushed red, his hair matted to his head. When he grinned his smile showed a missing tooth. "We have to do this again."

Naruto nodded in agreement. Several minutes later, Konohamaru sat up, Naruto's drying sperm holding them together for a second as if it didn't want them to part. Konohamaru looked down at his stomach which still had a little lotion on it along with other more recent things. "I think I need a shower."

"Me too, let's take one together to save time." Fifteen minutes later, they both left his apartment.

The streets of Konoha were quite possibly the safest in the entirety of the Land of Fire. With all the ninjas around, it was impossible for a street criminal to make a living, so a nine-year-old boy, like Konohamaru, could walk home without incident. However, after their earlier activities, he was half asleep and Naruto had to throw an arm around him to keep him from bumping into things.

They didn't talk but the silence was that of friends who had nothing to say to each other. Arriving at the Sarutobi estate, Naruto was surprised to see not a single light on. It was a little before nine. "Hey, Konohamaru, is anybody home?"

His friend shrugged, "Probably not. I told you grandpa was working late. Sometimes uncle Asuma will spend the night, but I don't need a babysitter anymore."

Naruto nodded wondering if Konohamaru ever felt lonely like he did when he was home alone. "Well, I got to get going," he was starting to feel uncomfortable and wanted to get out of here, but as he turned he felt his friends arms wrap around his waist.

"I had a lot of fun today."

Placing a hand on his friend's head he said, "Me too." After they pulled apart, Konohamaru went into his darkened house. Naruto left, but his thoughts stayed with his friend. He was starting to feel guilty about what he'd done even though Konohamaru seemed to have enjoyed it. The book had even said what they'd done was alright, but it also said he should be a role model.

He thought back on the conversation they had at Ichiraku. Konohamaru had told him that his grades were bad, and he had even tried to skip out on some classes. His friend was acting like him and that bothered him. Now that he was an actual ninja, some of the boring stuff at the Academy was coming in handy and he wished that he had paid more attention.

Pausing in mid step, Naruto thought about that. Could he get Konohamaru to pay more attention in class or at least help him study? The idea was appealing but then cold reality washed over him. He hadn't been a very good student, it would be like the blind leading the blind. Then an epiphany hit him which was quite possibly his first one. He had the smartest ninja in his class on his team, maybe she could help.

Forgetting the hour, he ran over to where she lived, glad to see the light on in her room. He knew it was her room because he had occasionally followed her back from the Academy and she always went to her room and opened that window. Reminding himself that it was totally non-stalking behavior, he jumped to the second story of her house.

He was about to knock on the window when he got his first good look inside. Sakura had her back turned to him, but she was in the middle of changing for bed. She only had her pajama bottoms on, leaving her back bare.

Trying to do two things at once, he failed miserably at both. First, he tried to cover his eyes but he accidentally banged his hand against the window, which drew her full attention. He also tried to take a step away from the window but missed his footing, which sent him crashing to the ground. Rubbing his head, Naruto froze when he heard the window slide open.

Now a fully dressed, pajama wearing Sakura appeared in the window before jumping down. She towered over him, cracking her knuckles. "Naruto, if you don't have a very good explanation of why you were peeping into my window, they're not even going to find pieces of you!"

The container of the nine tales cowered away from his teammate, wishing he was facing anyone, including Zabuza instead of his teammate. "I was, um, you see, I thought. "She advanced on him, death personified. "I need your help," he finally produced a coherent sentence as she towered over him.

"Help, what would you need my help with."

Taking his continued breathing as a good sign, he answered in a rush, "I need a favor."

That brought her up short, "A favor?"

He nodded vigorously, "Yeah, I want to help Konohamaru study but I don't know how and since you're the smartest person I know, I thought you might be able to help."

"Study? Since when do you care about studying?" Her tone was still hostile but it was being replaced with curiosity and incredulity.

He blushed, not really sure how to answer that, so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "Well, when you or Kakashi sensei has to explain something to me and everyone else already knows it, I kind of feel dumb. I don't want that to happen to Konohamaru." His answer surprised even himself.

Sakura stared down at him for what felt like an eternity before saying, "You're serious." He nodded, unable to meet her eyes. "Stay right there," turning she jumped back to her window and disappeared inside for several minutes.

The blonde sat in the street, afraid to stay but more afraid to leave. She returned with two notebooks in her hand. "These are all my notes from my first year at the Academy. I don't know how much of a help they'll be but it's the only thing I can think of right now."

"You kept these things," Naruto asked, taking them from her. He had no idea where his old notes where and it had taken him three years to fill one notebook up.

"Of course, I kept all of my Academy stuff." She turned to go back inside, but paused. "Naruto, next time you want a favor just knock on the front door and do it at a normal hour."

His nod went unseen as she slipped back into her bedroom window. Looking at the two notebooks in his hand, he wondered what he was going to do next. How was it possible to convince somebody to study? Well, he would think of something, he always did.


	5. Learning Can Be Fun

Naruto grinned to himself as he stared at the paper in his hands. He couldn't believe it. Well actually he could, after all he, was awesome and he had intended to demand Kakashi let them take the Chunin Exam but the man had beaten him to it.

"The final decision is up to you. If you choose to participate in this exam, sign that paper by tomorrow and go to room 302 before ten o'clock." Kakashi allowed his words to sink into the minds of his three students. "You have the day off to think about it," with that, he turned to walk away.

The blonde turned, facing his two teammates but his words caught in his throat. Sasuke was his usual cold, aloof self, although his aura of smugness was shining bright enough to blind somebody halfway across the village. Sakura, on the other hand, was staring past the paper in her hand, worry written across her face.

"What's wrong Sakura?"

The pink haired girl looked up at him and forced a smile. "Nothing's wrong."

Naruto was pretty sure she was lying but he wasn't sure if he could push the subject without being hit. Fortunately, Kakashi saved him from the potentially dangerous situation, "Naruto, I almost forgot to tell you. The Hokage would like to speak to you about his grandson. So if you follow me, I will show you to his office."

The orange clad genin tried to tramp down the fear that he was upset about yesterday. After all, the old man had given him the book and almost encouraged him. It was more likely that this had something to do with how late Konohamaru had arrived home last night, or at least he hoped so. Reluctantly following his sensei, he wondered how he was going to explain why his grandson had arrived at home so late.

"Sensei," Sakura shouted, running to catch up to the two of them. She winced under their twin gazes but straightened to attention. "If Naruto is going to be reprimanded for the incident with the Sand genin yesterday, I have to insist that I am too. The mistake was as much mine as"

"Sakura," Kakashi interrupted her, holding a hand up to forestall any further confession. "As pleased as I am to see you sticking by your teammate, I have to say that I have no idea what you're talking about." Her cheeks reddened and Naruto thought that the color complemented her hair quite nicely as Kakashi continued. "As far as I know, nobody is in trouble, but if that is the case I will summon you."

With that, the man turned and walked away, Naruto trailing behind, smiling to himself. The few times he had a partner in his crimes they had always hung him out to dry when he got caught and they didn't. It was a small thing, but Sakura's insistence gave him a warm feeling. After a few minutes of silence though, a question occurred to him, "Hey sensei, aren't you going to ask me about the incident?"

The Jonin pulled his single eye away from his orange book and glanced at his student, "If I ask you then you would have to tell me. Most likely, that would mean I would have to fill out a report and that means the incident would have to be looked into. If that happens you might be suspended from duty until the investigation is over and that would mean no exam." Putting a finger underneath his chin, he assumed an exaggerated thinking pose. "It seems like a lot of work, especially since Sunagakure hasn't registered a complaint."

Naruto wasn't sure if his sensei was looking out for him or was just being lazy. He guessed it didn't matter, it wasn't like he wanted to get in trouble. Entering the tower, they bypassed the mission hall, which was now empty, and continued up a flight of stairs. Stopping at a random door, Kakashi opened it and gestured for him to go in. "He'll be with you in a minute. See you tomorrow."

Naruto took in the small room. It had two couches and a nice view of the village. Hopping onto the couch, he waited for the axe to fall. A few minutes later, the door opened and the Hokage entered. "Hello Naruto, I see that you and Konohamaru had some fun last night," he said smiling.

The blonde blushed. Sure, the old man knew what was going on, but to reference it so bluntly was embarrassing. "Well," the rest of the words remained stuck in his throat.

The old man chuckled, "Never mind. I actually just wanted to give you something." He pulled out a paper that had what looked like a complex seal on it from underneath his robes and started to fold it. "This is called a homing paper bird. Not many people use them because they're so limited in range and can be easily intercepted. However, it will work for this purpose. You channel chakra into it and it will home in on a location," he held the bird out to Naruto, who took the origami bird reluctantly.

He examined the ornately folded paper bird which looked vaguely like a sparrow. He thought for a second and then risked sounding stupid, "Why are you giving this to me?"

The Hokage actually looked away from him as he answered. "Well, if Konohamaru ever spends the night at your place unexpectedly, you could just send that and I will know he is safe." The old man stood abruptly, "Well, that's all I wanted to say."

More responsibility Naruto thought to himself. Despite how embarrassing the situation was he smiled,, appreciating the vote of confidence. "I'm going to help him study," he blurted out, not realizing what he was saying.

"Oh," the old man smiled slyly and Naruto got the impression that he had expected this. "That's not going to be easy."

"I know. I don't want to but," Naruto trailed off.

"Naruto, one of the hardest things about growing up is learning that sometimes we have to do something we don't want to." Their eyes met and Naruto thought at that moment, the old man seemed to be weighed down by a lifetime of such decisions.

Standing, he crossed his arms confidently. "I am the future Hokage and I don't go back on my word, believe it."

* * *

Several hours later, Naruto was starting to regret his boast. Even with the notes from Sakura, he still had no idea how he would be able to convince Konohamaru to study. He had been a horrible student who only studied the things that had really interested him. Throwing another kunai at his makeshift target, he didn't even smile to himself when it hit dead center.

He started to collect his weapons. The Academy would be letting out soon. Maybe he should try to pick up his little friend today. Normally, the kid hunted him down through some Naruto sense only he seemed to possess, but he didn't do it every day. Tugging on one kunai that was embedded particularly deep, it gave abruptly, causing him to stumble backwards and fall on his butt.

Staring upwards into the cloudless sky, he had a thought. Maybe he was over thinking this. Iruka had always said that he thought best on his feet, so maybe he should just do it. Grinning for the first time in hours, he sprinted towards the Academy.

Unfortunately, by the time he got there, the Academy had already let out for the day. There were only a few students milling in the courtyard and a couple hanging out by the swing. He scanned for Konohamaru but didn't find the boy. "Hey, do you know where Konohamaru is?" He asked the closest boy who looked to be near his friend's age.

The boy, who was wearing a tie, looked startled for a minute before answering. "He went home."

Naruto shouted his thanks as he raced down the street, trying to figure out which one Konohamaru would take home. Crossing into the first intersection, he spotted him. He was about to call out, but the prankster in him who had not come out to play in a long time, took over.

Approaching the boy quickly, but quietly, he grabbed the smaller boy's long scarf at the end. Unaware, Konohamaru continued walking for several more steps until his scarf became taught and jerked him backwards. He turned as if he was about to shout at him, but when he saw who it was his expression changed. "Boss!"

"Hey, where are your friends?" It was a little unusual to see him without Udon and Moegi.

The boy sighed, "They went home to study. There's a big test at the end of the week and they're nervous." It was obvious that Konohamaru thought they were overreacting.

"Shouldn't you be doing that too?" Naruto couldn't believe his luck, although he wasn't sure if it was good or bad.

"It's just on Chi-mon. It's not like we're going to use that," the Third's grandson dismissed the subject with a shrug.

Chi-mon was a broad subject that covered the study of plants, animals, geography and how they could all be used to a ninja's advantage. Naruto had actually enjoyed studying it at first. "I've used it."

His young friend eyed him warily and said suspiciously, "When?"

The blonde felt like he was breaking out into a sweat as he honestly couldn't remember at first. Then, he remembered picking herbs with Haku. "Well, one time I had to gather some stuff to help a hurt friend," this was fairly close to the truth, "and that plant I have in the kitchen its Aloe. I use it when I burn myself in the kitchen."

"Well yeah, I know all that stuff." Despite his words, Konohamaru didn't sound confident.

Sensing victory, the genin went in for the kill, "if you're so smart what's the name of that," He pointed to a tree.

"Arborvitae," the boy said with a grin. "See."

In hindsight, Naruto realized that pointing to the most common tree in all of Fire country was probably not the best idea, but he recovered quickly. "I meant the plant under the tree."

His friend looked for a second and then looked away, "Plants are boring." Konohamaru said, putting his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, but you still have to know it." Naruto blinked, realizing how much he just sounded like Iruka, it was kind of scary.

"Come on Naruto, this is boring. Let's play or go back to your place."

His friend's wine gave him an idea. "If you study for an hour I will do something you want to do." Bribery, it always worked on him.

A thoughtful look crossed the younger boys face and he gestured for Naruto to come closer. "Can I see that book before making my request?"

The blonde felt his cheeks redden. He had finished that book and while there were some things he wouldn't mind trying, there were also things he didn't want to. "Can't we just play tag?"

"That's boring with only two people," Konohamaru replied with a grin.

"Fine," Naruto answered, wondering why he even tried to avoid it.

The two walked to the Jinchuriki's apartment. The older of the two would occasionally point out a plant and recite what he remembered about it, but the younger one didn't seem all that interested. When they did arrive at his home, Naruto brought out Sakura's notes and had Konohamaru read the relevant portion. Although his teammate's notes were insanely detailed, they only took about twenty minutes to read through. After that, Naruto took it back and asked him questions.

The blonde wasn't sure how much time passed, but eventually he ran out of questions. Not to mention seeing the words "Sakura Uchiha" and "Sasuke & Sakura 4 ever" scrolled in the margins was really starting to annoy him. Closing the notebook with a snap, he grinned, "We're done.."

"Finally," Konohamaru exclaimed. "That was worse than one of Iruka's lectures. Now where is the book?"

Naruto frowned. He didn't think he was that bad. Standing, he lifted up one of the corners of his mattress and retrieved the book. After last time, he thought he should hide it from his friend, just in case but now he was handing it over to him.

Konohamaru flipped to the back of the book were the illustrations were and thumbed through several pages before stopping and holding it up, grinning. The page actually had two pictures on it which were of the same thing but the positions were flipped. Either way though, somebody had their mouth on the others, "You do know that is where pee comes out, right?"

"It says, wash first."

Naruto made a mental note not to be so vague when he made promises to his friend anymore. Getting up, to get a washcloth, Konohamaru added, "You do me, then I'll do you."

At least the Thirds grandson had a sense of fair play, he thought ruefully. Washing himself, he pondered using soap before remembering a painful experience. Bringing the wet cloth with him into the bedroom, he found his friend already on the bed giggling, his legs spread, penis hard. "You really like doing this stuff?" Naruto questioned.

"It feels good," Konohamaru answered, putting his hands behind his head.

"Right," Naruto said, starting to clean his friend's erection, starting at the head and working down. Konohamaru giggled at the touch of the cloth, but that didn't last long as the older of the two quickly moved from shaft to sack and all parts around.

Once Naruto was satisfied that it was as clean as it was going to get, he still found himself hesitating. There was a part of him that just thought it was disgusting, but he had promised and he wouldn't go back on his word no matter who he gave it to. Pulling his lips over his teeth, he engulfed the entire member, deciding that it was like removing a band-aid, it was just best to get it over with.

Konohamaru was small enough that his head was barely touching the soft part of Naruto's palette. The blonde moved his tongue up and down the shaft, examining every inch. He lingered on every spot that caused his friend to tense or moan, wanting this to be a good experience for his friend. The boy seemed to like everything he tried, especially when he played with the tip, but when he touched the sore spot from yesterday Konohamaru yelped and bucked.

Naruto pulled free, "Sorry."

"It's okay. Just don't stop," Konohamaru panted.

"All right," the taller of the two said as an idea occurred to him. He stuck his tongue out and licked the yet untouched sack. His friend seemed to like it, and he did it several more times before going back to the shaft. When the shaft was back in his mouth, it started to twitch. Konohamaru's body tried to ejaculate sperm it had not yet produced. Naruto held it in his mouth until what felt like a finger shrank back into being more like a wet noodle.

Pulling free, he looked up at Konohamaru, whose face was flushed. "What do you think?" He was kind of curious of how he had done.

It took his friend a minute to recover an answer, "Great. I'll do you now."

Dropping his pants and boxers, Naruto changed positions with his friend. He had been hard since before he had started on Konohamaru and had secretly admitted to looking forward to his turn.

Unfortunately, his little friend didn't start right away. After a minute or so of waiting Naruto propped himself up on his elbows and glanced at his friend between his legs. Konohamaru was lying partly on the bed, just sort of staring at his thing, an unreadable expression on his face. A sense of guilt washed over the genin. "Let's not do this," Naruto said, starting to roll to his side.

Konohamaru stopped him by putting a hand on his thigh. "No, I want to. I was just thinking about something." To prove his point, the boy grasped his member and brought it to his mouth and engulfed his head.

Naruto groaned at the new sensation. It was hard to describe and before he could get a grasp on it was gone. "What's wrong?"

The brunette still held his member in his hand when he answered. "It smells."

"I can wash it again."

"That's all right," the smaller boy interrupted, "it's kind of nice.." He squeezed his member and laughed. "It's winking at me."

Naruto smiled because his friend seemed to be more at ease as he went back down on him. The little mouth moved up and down, never taking more than half of his length in. The warmth and the tongue that moved along with it made him feel incredible. He came with no warning into his friend's mouth.

Konohamaru pulled away, coughing. Naruto didn't have time to enjoy the orgasm. He was at his nude friend's side, apologizing and rubbing his back. Grabbing the discarded washcloth, he held it out to him, "Spit it into this." He did so and Naruto did his best to comfort him.

After a few minutes, the smaller boy looked up, his eyes watery, "I don't think I want to do that again."

"You don't have to do anything if you don't want too," Naruto replied.

The boy shook his head, "Maybe if you can give me a little warning, it wouldn't be so bad."

"I'm really sorry."

"It's okay."

Naruto held his friend, rubbing his back for several minutes. Neither of them tried to pull away. Eventually, Konohamaru seemed to lean into his embrace and closed his eyes, resting his head against his chest and after a few minutes the taller wondered if his friend had fallen asleep. Shaking his nude friend slightly, he stirred.

"Hey, you woke me," Konohamaru muttered.

"Sorry about that," Naruto replied sheepishly. "You want to get some ramen? We can go out for it."

His friend smiled and stood to put on a shirt, "Sure, but Naruto, I have a question. If I study for another hour right now, can we do something else?"

The blonde glared at his friend and said emphatically, "Not today."

"Oh come on, you've made learning fun," Konohamaru replied with a grin.

* * *

Author's note: I will freely admit that I actually have no idea what type of trees surround Konoha. I'm not actually sure if they're supposed to represent a real tree but Arborvitae are found in Japan and they sort of look like it. Whether or not Aloe actually works on burns I really can't say. Some studies say no some say yes. I've tried it but, not enough times to draw a conclusion.


	6. Bad Dream

Naruto could always tell when he was dreaming. There tended to be recurring themes such as a bottomless bowl of ramen, Sakura and himself holding hands and in the last year, the two of them doing things that made it difficult to look at her in the morning. Konohamaru rarely made an appearance, and when he did, the dream was going to be very weird and that was saying something, given his considerable imagination.

For whatever reason, they were in the woods, although he did not know the spot. The sun was coming through the leaves oddly radiant as it only appeared early in the morning. None of that held Naruto's attention though. Konohamaru stood a few feet in front of him, completely naked except for a white fundoshi. Naruto had only ever seen them worn during festivals, and even then they were rare, so why his friend was wearing one was beyond him.

Suddenly, the boy turned and started running and he pursued. Naruto's eyes drifted down to Konohamaru's butt, which was bare except for a thin piece of cloth that separated his two cheeks. Putting on a burst of speed, he jumped, tackling the smaller boy to the ground. They started wrestling. Every time he grabbed Konohamaru he could feel his hidden muscles, tight and firm and yet at the same time soft. It excited him, his penis becoming erect. The realization that he was already naked sent a tingling sensation up and down his body. This only could make sense in dream logic.

When they stopped they lay side by side and just stared into each other's eyes. Konohamaru tried to get up, but the blonde stopped him by putting a hand on the fundoshi. Pulling him back down until he was on his hands and knees, he sat up getting behind him. Naruto traced two of his fingers up either side of the cloth that separated his friend's cheeks who giggled in response.

Fundoshi were a single piece of cloth, first wrapped around the waist and then between the legs to conceal the privates. His fingers easily loosened the second part, letting it fall to the ground. In reality, he had never really examined his friend's back door, but that was no impediment to a dream. Separating Konohamaru's cheeks, he found the hole. The skin that immediately surrounded it was slightly darker than the rest.

Naruto positioned himself so that his rod was placed at the entrance. His little head was placed between his friend's cheeks, being squeezed gently between the two half globes. For a moment, the blonde paused to enjoy the sensation. Then, with little warning to himself and none to his partner, he thrust inwards. He buried himself to the hilt, pushing past any resistance and relishing the tight warm passage surrounding his most sensitive place.

It was then that the part of his mind that was a passive observer in his dream started to protest. The book, which he used as a guide in these matters, had gone on in some length about preparation and patience. That was definitely not this, and even if it was just a dream, it repelled him. Even as his dream body started to thrust his hip's back-and-forth, penetrating his unresponsive partner, his mind thrashed in panic. Naruto wanted to wake up but couldn't. The scene played itself out in his mind's eye to its inevitable conclusion. As he climaxed in his dream, he awoke climaxing in reality.

Naruto looked around in panic, not recognizing where he was. His meager dinner, which had not been all that appetizing the first time around, threatened to make a comeback and he stumbled towards the river. Through a supreme effort, he managed to stop the encore performance kneeling by the river.

Then he remembered where he was. He was in the Forest of Death, taking the Chunin Exam. He couldn't remember how many days he had been there because he had been out for awhile and had only woken up earlier that day. Unfortunately, that knowledge didn't distract him from the nightmare he just had.

Why would he even think of doing that? He remembered when he had come across that in the book and thought it was repulsive and painful looking. It had only been out of obligation that he had read about it. Still, the thing that bothered him the most was that he could even think of doing that to Konohamaru.

"Naruto are you okay?" Sakura's beautiful voice came from behind him.

Turning, the blonde plastered on a smile. "Yeah I," he trailed off. There was no way he could tell her the truth.

She squatted next to him, the moon light illuminating her face. "It looked like you were having a nightmare. I was just about to wake you because you were making so much noise. You might have attracted an enemy or worse, woke up Sasuke."

Naruto froze, realizing that if she was about to wake him that mean she was looking at him. Which means she was looking when he. Now that he thought about it, he could feel a damp spot in his boxers and he didn't have a change for them. Ducking his head under the water, he tried to hide his shame. Why didn't stuff like this ever happened to Sasuke.

His body betrayed him once again by demanding air. Coming up for air, he shook his head like a dog. Sakura was looking at him like he was crazy. "I don't want to go back to sleep." he supplied as an explanation.

"That bad?" She questioned, sounding unexpectedly sympathetic.

He nodded and looked up at the stars. It was possible to judge time by how far the stars had traversed in their endless circle. It had never been a talent of his, however, there was something not right about them. A minute, later he realized that they were too far advanced in their nightly circle for Sakura to still be on watch. "Shouldn't Sasuke be up?"

She looked away and even he knew that was a sign of guilt. "He had a rough day yesterday and I thought I should let him sleep a little longer."

"You need your sleep too." Naruto still wasn't clear on what exactly had happened earlier that day. He remembered fighting the Grass genin and then the next thing he knew, Chouji and Shikamaru had been standing over him, hitting him with a stick.

Sasuke had already been up and there were signs of battle. When he asked about it, nobody had really told him anything except for there had been a fight and everybody had helped chased the enemy off. Sasuke seemed to have been involved and after that, Naruto didn't want to hear more, but it had seemed like no big deal.

"Well I was going to wake you for your shift."

"That's cold Sakura." At least she had the decency to look away he thought.

That killed the conversation between the two of them. Sakura stared at the tree-line like she was expecting hordes of enemies to burst out any second. While Naruto leaned his head back, letting the water dripped down his back. It was a humid night and the sensation was pleasant.

"Have those notes helped?" Sakura asked.

Naruto grimmest to himself, "I had to bribe him to read them."

"You just had him read them?" she asked him disbelievingly.

"Well, I asked him questions too." Naruto said defensively, picking up on her tone.

"No wonder you had to bribe him, that's boring. Is that how you used to study?"

Scratching the back of his head, he laughed nervously, "I never studied that much."

She muttered something under her breath that sounded like "no surprise" but he chose to ignore it. "Listen, Konohamaru is what, eight?"

"Nine," he corrected.

"Whatever, you can't expect someone that young to study like that. You have to make it fun."

Studying fun? The concept was so alien to Naruto that he couldn't comprehend it. Sure, learning to throw a shuriken or a kunai was kind of exciting, but all the other stuff, no way. Some of it had been interesting but there had been a reason he had skipped so many of Iruka's classes. Fortunately, Naruto wore his emotions on his sleeve and Sakura picked up on his confusion.

She sighed, "Listen, my mom used to have some of my friends come over and she would turn that week's notes into a sort of game. Sometimes it would be something as simple as who could answer the most questions right, but this one time she turned it into like a scavenger hunt where we would have to answer questions to find the next clue."

"And that worked?" The blonde questioned.

His teammate blushed. "I know it sounds a little lame now, but it was a lot of fun and it was kind of like a study group. My mom's a teacher so she knew what she was doing."

"Your mom teaches at the Academy?" Naruto didn't remember her and he was pretty sure he would. After all, he did have a minor obsession with all things Sakura related.

"She's a preschool teacher," the pink haired girl ducked her head in barest. "But it still worked. Sure, she couldn't help me with the physical site and she was terrified of the weapons, but I did become the top academic student." She trailed off, realizing that she was rambling.

Naruto thought about what his teammate had just told him. Sakura was one of the smartest people he knew and he had always just thought she was that way. The idea that she had to work for it seemed at the same time right and frustrating. It wasn't like he hadn't tried at the Academy. He had, at least at times, but the academic stuff wasn't like throwing a kunai, where you could see your progress.

On the occasions he had tried to study, it had always been lonely and frustrating. Not to mention how depressing it was to get back a test where he had studied really hard to see no difference. In the few months since he had become an official genin, he felt like he had learned more than the entire time he had spent at the Academy.

So what was different? Kakashi sensei did have them do more exercises than Iruka had, but there had to be more to it. Then, in one minute of an unusually clear thought, he found his answer. It was his team. Almost every day, Naruto was trying to impress Sakura and was pitting himself against Sasuke. Sure, he had done the same thing at the Academy but in a sea of thirty students, he had easily been overlooked by them.

Briefly, he wondered how long it would have taken him to learn the tree climbing exercise if he hadn't been constantly comparing himself to Sasuke. As much as he liked to say he would never give up, the blonde had to admit that he had settled for the bare minimum at the Academy.

"Are you okay?"

Naruto snapped his head up at the question, pulling himself out of his thoughts. "Moegi and Udon."

"Who?"

"They're his friends, you chased them, remember?" Sakura did look especially cute when she was embarrassed he thought. "Maybe they can be his," Naruto struggled to remember the word, "study group."

She shook her head in disbelief rather than disagreement. "Naruto you're strange, but if you ever want any suggestions I will help."

"Thanks," he smiled and suddenly thought about a way he might be able to win some points with her. "Why don't you get some sleep, I'll stay up."

The pink haired kunoichi hesitated and looked over towards Sasuke who was still sleeping. "Do you promise not to wake him?"

He nodded reluctantly. There were only a few hours till dawn anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal. He turned his back on her as she went off to sleep and turned his mind to an interesting puzzle. Making studying fun still seemed a little strange to him, but with his considerable imagination bent towards the goal, he did come up with some ideas. By the time the sun was coming up he was eager for the exam to end so he could try some of them out.

The blonde heard one of his teammates getting up and he turned just in time to see Sasuke with his back turned to him. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

"Sakura took your shift." he answered.

The raven haired boy nodded, "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Whatever." Naruto said, turning away from him. It wasn't until after he was gone that he realized he should have done a password thing or something. Oh well, he probably wouldn't remember it anyways, and besides, what were the chances he'd be attacked.

After a few minutes, the blonde did start to worry. He wondered if he should wake Sakura or not so he could go after him, but then a genius idea struck him. Creating two clones on the theory that the only thing better than having one of him standing guard was two. He left them behind as he went into the woods. Sasuke probably won't go too far so it shouldn't take too long to find him.

Naruto thought of calling out, but on the off chance Sasuke was in trouble he wouldn't want to alert the enemy. Quietly, or at least as quietly as he could do anything, the genin checked behind every tree and bush. Then he heard soft painting. Curious, but not making any connections, he jumped into the trees for a better view.

Then, he saw Sasuke in the most unexpected position. The youngest Uchiha was leaning against a tree, his shorts around his ankles. His erection was in his hand and although he couldn't see how big it was from here, Naruto could make out a few dark hairs against his impossibly pale skin. Even as he watched, the boy's body arched his head tilting back, eyes closed.

Naruto had to stuff his hand into his mouth to stop from laughing. Not only had he seen something that most of the female population would kill to see, he had also discovered that the heartthrob of his generation wasn't producing any baby makers, yet. Before he was noticed, he slipped out of the tree and back to the camp.

The next few hours his teammates were baffled by his good mood. After all, they were still short one scroll and they were running out of time. However, he was rejoicing in the secret knowledge that he had beaten his eternal rival in at least one department.

* * *

Author's suggestion: if anyone is looking for a good Konohamaru story that isn't M rated checkout Assassins in the Snow on fan while you're there check out my profile and vote in the poll to choose the next story I will write.


	7. Training

Summoning was by far the most difficult and annoying technique Naruto had ever tried to learn. At least when he had practiced the clone technique he didn't have to keep biting his thumb. Really, why couldn't the fur ball back off and let him bleed for a while. He was lucky if he was able to make three attempts at summoning before he ran out of blood and had to bite himself again.

It wouldn't be so bad if he felt like he was actually making progress, but he wasn't even summoning larger tadpoles yet. The old pervert had told him to knock off for the day and he had begrudgingly agreed only after he had vanished without a trace. Why couldn't he stop looking at the girls for a few minutes and help him out. It was almost enough to make him wish that he stuck with the closet pervert.

Okay, the first time they had met he had stared at him with those eyes that he hated so much, but this time he had been different. His sensei seemed to respect him and he had been Konohamaru's private tutor so he had to know what he was talking about. Then again, he had been knocked out easily and Naruto was pretty sure that most of the old perverts boasts were just that.

With an effort, he pushed those thoughts away, his training troubles didn't matter right now. He had a personal mission that was as important as passing the Chunin exam and that was helping Konohamaru become the best ninja he could. That would show the Hokage that he had not been wrong to place his faith in him. Now, if he could only find the brat.

It shouldn't be this hard. After all, Konohamaru always seemed to find him without much trouble. Naruto decided he was going to check one more spot and if he wasn't there he would try his house again. He knew that his two friends always had to go home for dinner at the same time every day and Konohamaru generally went home if he wasn't with them.

A small clearing came into view through the trees and he could see the bright yellow of Konohamaru's favorite shirt. The young Jinchuriki smiled to himself as he saw that the other two were still with him. The three of them seem to be engrossed in the game that Moegi had given Konohamaru for his birthday so he was able to approach unnoticed.

"Hey," Naruto called out when he was only a few feet away.

Turning, Moegi and Udon smiled, surprised and happy to see him. Konohamaru, in comparison, dropped the dart he had in his hand and ran towards him. For a moment, Naruto thought Konohamaru was going to hug him but he stopped short and wrapped his arms around himself and smiled.

"I haven't seen you guys in a while," Naruto said after a minute of silence.

"Grandpa said we shouldn't bother you until the exam is over," Konohamaru spoke looking down, depressed.

Naruto didn't understand why the Third would say that but he dismissed it like he generally did with anything that confused him. "My trainings done for the day and I was bored so I went looking for you guys."

"So do you want to play?" Udon spoke up in his nasally voice.

The second he nodded Moegi shouted, "Naruto is on my team."

"No he's not," Konohamaru said in an unexpected whiny voice.

"I called him and you're really good at this game anyways."

"Yeah but he was my friend first."

The blonde watched the argument for a second, amused. When he had been their age most of the kids had argued who had to take him on their team. The turnaround was nice, but he did want to see if he could pull off his plan today. "Sorry Konohamaru but Moegi did call it." He stepped around his young friend to stand next to her, missing the hurt look he gave him. "So what are the rules?"

She smiled and held up what looked like an oversized dart. "You need to throw this into one of those circles out there," she pointed about twenty feet in front of her. "If it lands in the blue circle you get one point and if it lands in the smaller red you get two points. The first team that gets twenty-one wins."

Naruto silently thanked his good fortune, this was a pretty good set up. "It kind of reminds me of that game that I came up with for shuriken practice." He told himself it wasn't really a lie, he had come up with the game, if only a few days ago.

"Game?" Moegi questioned.

"Yeah, it was something I came up with during practice one day. Do you want me to show you instead of playing this?"

The three were quiet and he wondered if he had screwed up again. After talking with Sakura in the forest, he realized that just having Konohamaru read notes was a bad idea. He hadn't liked it when Iruka had him study that way and Konohamaru was a lot like him after all.

"We're not supposed to practice with weapons unless a superior is watching us." Udon finally spoke up.

Naruto mentally kicked himself, remembering that was a rule for the first-year. Then he remembered that he was a superior. Tapping his Hitai-ate he said, "I'm a superior."

"Works for me." Konohamaru chirped with a grin.

With his endorsement, the other two seemed to come around and all three eagerly followed him. Naruto picked out a tree about the size of a human torso, which was the standard target size, and drew eight shuriken. Taking a deep breath, and hoping his plan was going to work, he started throwing. The first two hit high and about a hands length apart. The next five were thrown in quicker succession, forming an arc beneath the first two and the last was thrown dead center.

"Cool." Konohamaru said grinning.

"Awesome." Udon added before sniffing.

"It's a face." Moegi exclaimed shocked..

"Who wants to try?" Naruto asked, pleased with their reactions.

Konohamaru was the first to volunteer, which was no surprise. He was actually pretty good. As in, all the shuriken hit the tree although the nose was in the middle of his forehead and the mouth was lopsided. He immediately wanted to try again, which was what the blonde was hoping for but he gave the shuriken to Udon.

The boy with the perpetually runny nose was worse than Konohamaru, but at least they all hit the tree, though even with his ample imagination, Naruto couldn't make a face out of the pattern. Moegi was last, but when he tried to give her the weapons she shook her head and stepped away. "What's wrong? You know how to use them."

She didn't say anything but Konohamaru supplied the answer. "Moegi is one of the worst in the class."

The little girl's face turned red and she clenched her fists. "Well, we all can't have private tutors."

"Hey, don't get angry just because I'm better than you."

Naruto, who was starting to see his plans go up in smoke, tried to interrupt them. "Hey, it's okay, I used to be at the bottom of the class and now I can kick any of their asses." He held out a shuriken, "Give it a try."

The orange haired girl took the weapon and after a moment of hesitation she flung it overhand. It missed by a good margin. "See," she shouted "I'm just no good at throwing weapons."

The blonde had watched her closely and he saw an echo of himself in her. He had been pretty bad at first but eventually he had got it. "You're letting it go too early. When you throw it overhand you want to let it go on the way down from your arc. Come on, let me show you."

For the next twenty minutes, Konohamaru and Udon competed to see who could make the best face while he and Moegi worked on her throwing. By the time she had to go home, she was consistently hitting the target. Her problem was mostly timing and it was actually fairly easy to fix. If the teachers at the Academy could have spent more than a few minutes with each student they would've been able to fix the problem just as easily.

Moegi left ecstatic that she could show off the next time the class had shuriken practice. Judging by how much shouting Udon and Konohamaru had done, they had fun too, and more importantly, got some extra practice in. As Naruto watched them leave he had to admit that his plan had only partly worked, but helping Moegi had been nice and if Konohamaru wasn't careful, she might surpass him.

Naruto felt a hand come around and rest on his inner thigh as a weight pressed against his body. Looking down, he saw Konohamaru grinning up at him. "That was fun, but do you want to go back to your place?"

The genin shifted uncomfortably, still remembering the dream he had almost a week ago now. "I'm kind of tired." As Konohamaru's grin faded he added, "Why don't we just get a bowl of Ramen at Ichiraku, my treat?"

"Sure." Konohamaru replied.

Naruto helped him pick up his game before they left. "Hey, boss can I ask you a question?" The older boy grunted in the affirmative. "You said that the lawn darts reminded you of that face game. How? I don't see it."

The would-be teacher grimaced to himself and admitted he had to come up with better cover stories.

* * *

Day ten of Naruto's playing for training program found him crouched in the woods, disguised as a rock. He was playing a variation on the ninja game. Ordinarily, they would split into two teams and one would hunt and the other would hide. In this version, he hid and then transformed himself into something while the Konohamaru core tried to find him.

He figured it was the best way for them to practice detecting a henge. His disguise wasn't perfect, but he didn't want it to be. Unlike the first time he had come across one in a battle, he wanted them to have a chance of detecting it. The blonde thought it was one of his better ideas but he hadn't realized how long he might have to hold the transformation before being found. It had to be going on five minutes and he was starting to become tired.

A rustle of leaves drew his attention back to his current circumstances. The sound had come from behind him and despite wanting to be found, he felt a little nervous. How had those Demon Brothers handled the tension, he thought, remembering his first real battle.

As the sounds came closer, he concentrated on thinking rock like thoughts, but realized he had no idea what a rock might think. The steps came closer and then they suddenly stopped and he could imagine one of the trio was staring down at him. After a moment, a paper shuriken bounced off the back of his head. "Gotcha Naruto," It was Udon.

"You got me," he said holding the transformation until he heard the other two gather around, letting them get a good look at him. Then, with a poof of smoke, he was his regular orange self again. "How did you know it was me?"

Udon shifted nervously at being the center of attention. "Well, there aren't many rocks around here and you were the wrong color for the ones that are."

"You didn't have any moss on you either." Moegi chimed in.

Naruto's grin faltered. He had intended the first two mistakes, but not the third. Surreptitiously looking at some of the trees, he noticed moss was growing on them. Stupid mistake, he made a mental note to reread those notes of Sakura. "Yeah." just because he screwed up didn't mean he was going to admit to it.

"Naruto," Udon sniffed loudly before continuing. "They just started teaching us how to transform at the Academy, but would a ninja actually use that in battle."

"Of course they would. On my first mission out of the village two ninja tried to ambush my team by disguising themselves as a puddle, but it hadn't rained in days so my sensei saw through it right away." He scratched the back of his head, no reason to tell them that he had been fooled.

"So it can be used for ambushes, but is there anything else?" Moegi questioned.

"Well, last time I was fighting someone they used a dog."

"A dog?" Konohamaru asked.

"Yeah," he explained about animal companions, silently thankful that he had thought to read up on it through Sakura's notes. Personally, he didn't remember that stuff being covered at the Academy but it had probably been one of those times he had not been paying attention. He thought about throwing in summoning, but figured he should keep that a secret until he could summon more than a tadpole with something that might be legs

"So, the three of us looked identical to each other and then he said he could tell us apart by smell. Then he hit me and I transformed into his dog. He was so confused that he turned and hit his actual partner." He smiled, enjoying having the three's complete attentions.

"Is it hard to learn?" Moegi asked hopefully. "Could you teach it to us? It would be really cool if the first time we tried to transform at the Academy it worked."

Naruto thought for a second. He had taught Konohamaru the Sexy Technique which was a variation on the technique so he already knew how to do it. Then he had an idea, "Well, I could, but Konohamaru already knows how to do it." His blue eyes drifted over to where Konohamaru was standing and after a few seconds he seemed to pick up on the suggestion.

"I can teach you it." The little boy's eyes lit up with excitement.

Naruto didn't remember where he had heard it but somebody had once told him that teaching was the best way to master something. He had never really thought about it. However, the last few days had taught him one thing. If you're going to teach you had to know more than the basics. These three asked a lot of questions and even with the help of those notes he didn't always know the answers.

So, having Konohamaru teach something to his friends would help him master it and point out his own shortcomings like Naruto was. Besides, if Konohamaru ran into trouble he would help out since this was a skill he had down pat. What could go wrong?

* * *

"Ninja Art: Summoning Jutsu," Naruto slammed his hand down and waited for the smoke to clear. Slowly it revealed a head, a set of legs, a set of hind legs and a tail! "No," he shouted with the pent-up frustration of a thousand failures. He fell to his knees exhausted.

The Pervy Sage, giggling, drifted over. Before the blonde knew what he was doing, he had snatched up a nearby rock and was about to throw it at the back of his so-called teachers head, when he stopped himself. Throwing a rock at the back of a teachers head, no matter how deserving, wasn't a good example to set and he had been trying to act like a good role model even when Konohamaru wasn't around. Instead, he tossed the rock into the stream.

After a moment of thought, he grinned to himself. Throwing a rock wasn't respectable behavior but neither was peeping on girls. Cupping his hand over his mouth he shouted, "Hey, Pervy Sage, stop looking at those girls swimming and help me with my training!"

There were several squeals from the girls followed by a brief hail of projectiles. His teacher dodged but a bottle of suntan lotion bounced off his head anyways. After a moment, the girls had fled and the white-haired man turned to face him tears in his eyes. "That was mean. Those girls probably won't come back here tomorrow and I won't be able to do any of my research."

"Serves you right for ogling them all day and not helping your student." Naruto said crossing his arms, feeling superior.

"And what do you want me to help you with? I've told you everything you need to know."

The blonde snorted at that, but in truth, he didn't really know of any questions he could ask. Then, he thought about the Konohamaru core, what questions would they ask him? "Where do these things come from anyways?"

"The toads," Jiraiya asked. "You've been doing this for nearly twenty days and you just got around to thinking about that?"

"Do you even know?" Naruto snapped.

"The toads come from Mount Myoboku, though other summoned creatures come from other places."

"Can somebody have more than one contract with different summons?"

The gray-haired man looked at him suspiciously but answered, "With the toads, yes, and most other contracts, but there are a few that are exclusive. I only have the one, but one of my old teammates had at least two that I know of."

The blonde thought for a second and then he remembered something from the preliminaries. "I saw this girl a little older then me. She's summoned a bunch of weapons from a scroll. How did she do that?"

"That's a little different from what you're learning. You see, she prepared those scrolls ahead of time. Most of the time, those type of scrolls respond to anyone. It's not uncommon for a ninja to carry a scroll that carries weapons or medical supplies with them, just in case."

"So, if I found a summoning contract, all I might get from it is a bunch of kunai?" That was a little weird he thought.

"Well, there are a few summoning contracts that allow you to summon a special object. However, if you do find a contract, research it before you sign it. You might only get one use out of them and sometimes a summons demand a price. Like your life."

That little piece of information made Naruto nervous, "But not the toads right?"

The gray-haired man shook his head no, and seemed to consider his student for a second. "You're right, this training is not doing it for you. There is another method but it's dangerous and you might not survive, are you up for it?"

"I'm going to be the next Hokage. I can take anything you can throw at me." Despite his words he was a little nervous at how serious the pervert was acting.

"Good, meet me here tomorrow." He turned to walk away but paused, "If you have a girl you like, go spend some time with her and don't forget to give her a hug, it might be your last chance."

* * *

Naruto paced nervously outside of the Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Sakura had said she would meet him here, but what was taking her so long? She said she would only be a few minutes but what if she was just blowing him off? No, she was too nice to do that. Maybe he should trace the path to her house to see if something was holding her up, but then he might miss her. He started to pull at his hair, decisions, too many decisions.

"Naruto are you okay?"

He spun to face the owner of the beautiful voice, "Sakura. Yeah, I'm fine. I just thought you were going to come from that direction." He pointed stupidly and then shook his head, "Never mind."

"Okay," his pink haired teammate eyed him suspiciously. "You said you wanted to talk to me about something important."

"Yeah, let me buy you a bowl and we can talk." He didn't like lying to her but it wasn't like she would've come if she knew what he was going to ask.

"Alright, but this is not a date."

He nodded vigorously, more nervous than ever now. They sat down and ordered. Now that Naruto had her where he wanted her he found himself unable to ask the favor. Asking for a hug or even a kiss just seemed weird. Sure, he had done a lot of stuff with Konohamaru but that was just two friends messing around. It was different with girls. So, instead he talked about his three little friends. He talked about the games he played and what he had been teaching them or at least trying to.

"I'm surprised you're sticking with it." she commented.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked defensively.

"Well, it's just you weren't the best student in our class." She stirred her noodles, "I used to think that was because you didn't try."

Naruto was hurt at first, but he had to admit there was some truth to what she was saying. "We've all changed since we graduated."

"I know." She sounded so down that he was tempted to throw a friendly arm around her. "You, Ino, Sasuke and everyone else has become so much stronger. Sometimes I feel like,"

"Boss," Konohamaru shouted from behind him.

The blonde spun on his stool slightly annoyed. He knew that Sakura was just about to say something important. Still, when he saw the three beaming faces he couldn't snap at them. "What do you three idiots want?"

Konohamaru looked at his two friends and took a step back so that all three of them were in a line facing Naruto. "We invented a new Jutsu and we want to show it to you. Ready guys?" Konohamaru asked, looking at his two teammates.

They nodded and all three shouted in unison, "Pudding Pudding Technique!" The three transformed into a trio of very well endowed, clothed women. After they struck a pose, they leaned forward, pushing their ample breasts together and asked, "What do you think Naruto sensei?"

The blonde leaned his back against the counter and concealed a smile with his hand, taking on a thinking pose. Clearly, it was a variation on the Sexy Jutsu and that was all right, but he was happier that they had called him sensei even if it was only a joke. Still, he took in the transformations themselves. They were pretty good. Clearly they had worked hard on them.

The breasts were the right shape and size. Their clothes seemed realistic and their faces were perfect, which had been something he had struggled with at their age. "Great work, but it's missing something. Maybe you should think about props or," he broke off when he heard a snapping sound.

Sakura had turned to watch the demonstration and was not pleased. If Naruto had been anyone but himself, he would have been halfway across the village by now. Unfortunately, he was Naruto and even the snapped chopsticks didn't provide him with a clue.

"Naruto," she emphasized each syllable, "what exactly have you been teaching these kids?"

The blonde being chased through the village had only become a rare sight in the recent months. The solitary girl chasing him was a novel twist on an old story. However, what was of more interest to the male onlookers were the three busty women following her. The mere sight of them caused every single straight male in the village to do a thorough, if fruitless, search of every nightclub, bar and single hang out there was in Konoha.

* * *

Naruto had a terrible deep dark secret that he kept from everyone. He knew if it ever got out he'd be ruthlessly mocked by his peers. That secret was, simply, after a long hard day he liked to take a long hot bath and today had certainly been hard. Between the summoning practice and Sakura chasing him, he was exhausted.

Sure, he liked Hot Springs too, but there was something to the privacy of a bathtub that made him enjoy them more and besides, you could add bubbles to it. Those were probably what he liked most about taking a bath. The way the bubbles tickled as they popped in his hand or the way you could blow them around. Whenever he added the mixture into the tub, he wouldn't leave until he popped every one of them.

As the tub filled, the young teen searched for the bubble bath, but the bottle was empty. He mentally put it on the list of stuff to buy. Stripping off his clothes, he slipped into the tub, allowing the hot water to relax his muscles. Laying back and closing his eyes, Naruto wondered what the Pervy Sage was going to have him do tomorrow. It was supposed to be dangerous, but he was pretty sure the pervert was just trying to scare him. He pushed his worries away, he was awesome, he could handle it.

He felt himself starting to fall asleep, which had happened before, while he was still in the tub. One time he had woken up hour's later, cold from the water and shriveled as a raisin. Another time he almost drowned. Despite those two unpleasant experiences he just couldn't muster up enough energy to climb out of the tub. The water was so nice and warm, and a few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

The young ninja was about to fall asleep when he heard his apartment door close. The sound made him sit up and he called groggily, "Konohamaru?"

A second later his young friend poked his head around the door and said, "Hi."

Naruto collapsed back into the tub and closed his eyes. "What do you want?" When he didn't receive an immediate answer he cracked an eye open. The boy was just standing in the doorway. He was starting to feel a little worried, "Hey, is something wrong?"

Konohamaru was just staring at his feet when he suddenly looked up and said, "Do you like Moegi and Udon more than me?"

"What?" The genin was used to not understanding things, but he had been going out of his way to play with Konohamaru, so how his friend could ever draw such a conclusion was completely baffling. "How could you think that?"

"Well, we haven't been doing stuff together and I thought maybe you just didn't like me anymore."

"Konohamaru, I play with you about every day."

"No, we haven't done, you know, that stuff from the book. I know I didn't do a good job last time, but I've been thinking about it and I think I can do better." He took several steps toward him, his bare feet popping against the tile.

Naruto tried to cover himself, but realized there wasn't anything his friend hadn't already seen. "It's not like that. It's just," the blonde paused, not knowing what to say. Sure, he could tell Konohamaru he had a dream about him that he found disturbing, but he wanted to keep that shame a secret. "I just don't want to hurt you."

His small friend laughed, kneeling next to the tub. "You wouldn't hurt me Naruto." Without warning, Konohamaru reached into the tub grabbed his shaft and gave it a squeeze. "Is that why you always came up with an excuse when I asked to come back to your place?"

"Sort of," Naruto said, gasping. For almost three weeks he had only felt his own hand down there and had almost forgotten how good it was with a partner.

Konohamaru let his member go and started to play with his pubic hair, twirling it around his ring finger. "I thought it was something I did."

Naruto grabbed the younger boy's hand and pulled it away. "I'm sorry."

His small friend grinned, his missing tooth showing predominantly, "Does that mean you want to do something now?"

"Don't you need to be getting home soon?"

The young boy shook his head. "The old man is working late and he said he might not come home until one or two in the morning."

"And nobody's waiting there for you?"

"Uncle Asuma is on a mission." He perked up unexpectedly, "It has to be important because one of his students is taking the exam too, just like you."

Naruto almost ruffled his hair, but remembered his hands were wet. Still, the idea of Konohamaru spending the night alone in that mansion was kind of depressing. Then he remembered the paper sparrow he had.. "Do you want to spend the night here?"

"I'd like to but grandpa always checks on me when he gets home, even if I'm already asleep. I'd get in big trouble if I wasn't there."

The older boy smiled gently, "No you won't. Your grandpa said it was okay anytime as long as I tell him. He even gave me a paper sparrow to contact him with."

"Really?" the boy side disbelievingly but wanting to believe.

Naruto nodded, "Go get it and I'll send it off."

The small boy stood to leave but stopped, "I left my pajamas at home."

"You can borrow one of my shirts and sleep in your boxers. I've done that on missions sometimes." Actually, he thought to himself, he only had to do that once when he had spilled water on himself after he had already changed his clothes.

The Thirds only grandson darted out of the room. Naruto used that time to get out of the tub and change into his own pajamas. He took Konohamaru to the window when he released the bird. Not knowing how much chakra to put into it, he gave it his all and the thing flew like a hummingbird. He threw his friend a shirt that was so big it came down to his small knees. Pulling the covers back, he climbed into bed.

"Can we do something tonight?"

Naruto said, "Not tonight, I'm really tired and I have some serious training tomorrow. I promise next time."

Konohamaru nodded dejectedly, climbing into bed with him. It took them a minute for both of them to find comfortable positions, but as soon as they did, Naruto nodded off. His bedmate was less tired and simply enjoyed being so close to the ninja he looked up to so much. Then an evil thought crossed his mind and his hand started to drift down to his idols favorite toy.


	8. Pleasant Distractions

Naruto was starting to wonder why he kept passing out during training. It was becoming a theme with him. He had fainted more than once while trying to master tree walking and now the toads summoning had sent him to the hospital. Still he could do it now which was the only thing keeping him from hunting down the old pervert for throwing him off a cliff. Until a few days ago he had not even known there was a cliff near Konoha.

In the end his stay in the hospital had not been so bad. Finding Shikamaru by his bedside had been strange but, at the same time kind of nice. However, the handmade get well card made by his three little friends had almost brought tears to his eyes. If the other boy hadn't been there he probably would've cried. He had just placed the card in a box he kept under his bed. The box was where he kept his valued objects such as the goggles he had worn for so long.

Smiling contentedly he suddenly remembered that it had been three days since he had taken a shower. Naruto sniffed himself experimentally. There wasn't an obvious smell but, you couldn't be too careful. Deciding to take a shower he started stripping on his way to the bathroom before stepping into the shower.

The warm water rain down on the blonde's naked body causing a partial erection. For a moment he thought about bringing his flagging member up to full attention but, he couldn't muster up the ambition. Instead Naruto just watch as it shrunk back to its normal size.

It still looked odd with its new haircut. He grimaced remembering a few days ago when he had woken up to find out that Konohamaru had braided his pubic hair while he slept. Untangling them had proven painful and it had just been easier to take a pair of scissors to them. Now it looked like a bald guy with a bad comb-over.

Ordinarily such an affront would demand retribution but, after his hospital stay he didn't have the heart. He thought of the card, "Get well soon we miss you." It was great to have friends even if one of them had cost him most of his pubic hair.

The day would've been perfect if it hadn't been for that redheaded kid in bushy brows room. That kid was messed up and if he didn't pity him he would hate him. The blonde could so easily see himself in his place. For a moment he worried about Sasuke. He would be facing that kid in the first round.

No, it was destiny that Sasuke and he would make it to the finals. It was going to be an epic battle but, he would win because he could summon a Toad. He grinned imagining his friend being sat on by Gamabunta while he stood on top. That would show the raven haired dry coming prodigy that Naruto Uzumaki was the best ninja in the village. His grin faltered why did the finals have to take place in an arena?

Stepping out of the shower he tried to take his mind off the upcoming exam. At first he tried to work on a scavenger hunt for the Konohamaru core but, his mind was unable to concentrate. Writing clues for them to find certain plants was a lot harder than he thought it would be and he briefly wondered if Sakura's offer to help him was still good. She had been pretty upset the last time he had seen her.

Giving up on that he started reading some of his old scrolls from the Academy. Annoyingly though Neji's face kept appearing in front of him. Remembering what he did to Hinata made him angry and at the same time scared. What if that happened to him? He needed to go for a walk.

* * *

An hour later Naruto's disposition hadn't improved. He was just trying to kill time unable to really concentrate on anything. Walking in the park the blonde was seriously considering asking for a D-rank mission just to have something to distract himself when he was ambushed.

What he thought was a trash can suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. Konohamaru jumped out of the cloud and grab Naruto around the waist. On his other side a lamppost did the same thing only this time it was Moegi who grabbed him.

"We got you Naruto," Konohamaru shouted squeezing him tightly.

Despite himself when the blonde saw the two faces beaming up at him he tried to smile back. Moegi frown catching on that it was a forced smile, "What's wrong? You're feeling better right?"

He ruffled their hair, "I'm fine." The two peeled themselves off of him as Naruto moved to sit on a bench so that he could be at their eye level. "I'm just nervous about tomorrow," as he sat down the bench disappeared in yet another puff of smoke.

"Naruto get off me your heavy," Udon cried from beneath the blonde's legs.

"Udon you were supposed to grab him with us," Konohamaru scolded his friend.

"Sorry, I got nervous," the bespectacled boy explained crawling out from underneath Naruto's legs.

The genin lay on his back for a minute realizing that he had just been successfully ambushed by three Academy students. His silence was so long that the three kids grew quiet. Setting up he leveled his best glare at the trio. They nervously looked at each other wondering if they had gone too far. Then he allowed himself to smile and said, "That was better than your square rock disguise."

They smiled back at him relieved and then Konohamaru spoke up. "They finally let us try an actual transformation today in class. We scored the highest."

"Yeah, Iruka sensei was really impressed especially with Udon and me because our parents are civilians."

Udon sniffed, "It's really not that different from the Sexy Technique and with everything you told us it was actually really easy. I um, we wanted to thank you for that."

The blonde felt a swelling of pride as he saw in their accomplishment his own. Scratching the back of his head he said, "It's no big deal. I like hanging out with you guys." Naruto was surprised at how true those words were. Not only did he like how they seem to look up to him but, when he played with them he was enjoying a childhood that had been largely denied to him. Not to mention all the stuff he was learning or re-learning when he showed them something.

The emotions he was feeling was a little too much for the young Jinchuriki. Tapping the closest one to him he shouted, "Udon is it."

As it turned out playing tag was a good distraction. Within twenty minutes the four of them were soaked in sweat and still going at it. Konohamaru was now it and chasing after Naruto who was running backwards to tease him. They entered a tree shadow and without even really thinking about it he channeled chakra to his feet running up the trunk.

"Hey, no fair Naruto we can't do that yet."

It actually took the genin a second to realize what he was talking about. "Oh sorry," he laughed nervously dropping to the ground.

"How did you do that?" Udon called from several feet away.

Naruto hesitated and looked at Konohamaru, "Timeout?" The scarf wearing kid just crossed his arms allowing his two friends to gather around. "Well, you know how you have to channel your chakra to perform a jutsu like transformation," the three nodded almost in unison. "It's like that only instead of centering it you channel it to your hands or feet."

"How does that make you stick to a tree though," Konohamaru asked.

The blonde blinked trying to remember if Kakashi had explained that. He couldn't remember. Making a mental note to look it up later he answered, "It's like Velcro."

That seemed to mollify him for a second before he asked with a grin, "Can you teach us how to do it?"

The young teen actually thought before answering. His first thought was did they have an adequate supply of chakra at their age? Then he remembered how many times he had fallen while learning it himself, that had hurt and he knew how to take a fall. Still, looking at their hopeful expression he couldn't say no. "Sure but, not today it's getting late and," he trailed off as Udon and Moegi looked at each other.

"We're going to be late, Udon stated to Moegi.

"We'll have to run," The orange haired girl added. The two were about to run off when she paused and turned to Naruto. "Thanks for everything and I'm sure you'll do great in the tournament tomorrow."

"Yeah," Udon added and then paused before saying, "my mom says that the best thing to do before a big test is to get a good night's sleep."

"Thanks," Naruto said waving goodbye. He watched as the two ran for all they were worth. Feeling a tug on his jacket he looked down at the remaining member of the trio.

"I don't have to go home. So, can you teach me that tree walking thing?"

Naruto tried to think up a good excuse he could use. "It's getting dark." He wanted to think about this since he wasn't sure if it was possible for them at this stage in their training.

If Konohamaru had known how late Naruto had trained in the Land of Wave he wouldn't have been so easily mollified. Then he smiled up at the older boy. "You know the old man tells me the same thing about getting a good night's sleep."

The blonde put his hands behind his head casually, "Maybe but I'm not sure if I'll be getting much sleep tonight."

"I can help."

"How," Naruto asked curiously. Unexpectedly he felt a little hand on his crotch. He pulled away but blood was already rushing from his brain to another more important organ.

"I can spend the night again only this time you know we can do stuff. That always makes me sleepy."

The proposal made the genin smile. It was sweet in a strange way. There was a part of him that wanted to say no but, the last time he had given in to those concerns he had ended up making Konohamaru feel worse. "If the old man says it is okay then sure."

"I'll be there in ten minutes."

* * *

Twenty minutes later Naruto was about to give up on Konohamaru when he heard his door open. "I'm in the kitchen. Do you want any ramen?"

The little boy poked his head into the kitchen, "Sure but, you know your door wasn't locked?"

"I was saving you the trouble," The blonde said glancing over at him. "What's in the backpack?"

"A change of clothes, my pajamas, stuff for the Academy tomorrow and a gift for you," The younger boy smiled at the older expression. Shrugging off his backpack he started to dig through it. "I tried but, my grandpa said I couldn't skip the Academy tomorrow to watch you in the tournament. So, I got you this the other day." He handed Naruto a plastic bag with a grin.

The young teen wasn't used to receiving gifts. Sure at the orphanage he had been given gifts like the other children and Iruka had started giving him gifts too but, always on his birthday. He had never just been given a gift. Speechless for once in his life he pulled the cloth out of the bag and examined it. It was orange like his regular clothes and had little ramen bowls printed all over it. "Boxers," Naruto questioned.

Konohamaru grinned clearly proud of himself. Pulling his own boxers up he showed they were a smaller pair of the same thing. "I'm going to wear these tomorrow and you can wear those. So, it's like we'll be together sort of."

"Thanks," Naruto didn't get it. Fortunately the tea kettle started to whistle. He busied himself preparing the two bowls of instant ramen before handing them to his younger friend. Konohamaru was already sitting on the table his bare feet swinging freely in the air. Naruto joined him ignoring the chair and kicking off his own footwear. "Maybe I should get another chair. You've been eating here a lot."

"I like eating like this. I could never get away with doing this at home." After that the two concentrated on eating and the only proof that anyone was in the apartment was the occasional slurping sound. "Can I ask you a question," Konohamaru asked abruptly.

"Sure," Naruto said through a mouthful of noodles.

"Why do you like Sakura?"

Naruto cloth as he tried to articulate his answer through a mouthful of noodles. "Well she's cute, smart and nice."

"Nice," his friend exclaimed hopping of the table. "If she's nice then how come she is always so angry at you?"

The blonde blinked not understanding his friend's outburst. "She's not always like that. She can be really nice just not when a lot of other people are around. Like the first time you met her she was just joking around."

Naruto remember a dozen small incidences of her kindness. He remembered the time in the forest when Sakura had helped him with the tree walking exercise. Then there was the first time they had meant and she had chased off those two kids that were picking on him. The most precious memory though was a recent one. Right before the beginning of the exam she had grabbed his hand. Okay she had grabbed Sasuke to but he could block that out.

"Moegi isn't like that," his friend announced.

Naruto cocked his head thinking about that. "Yeah, so do you like her?"

Konohamaru scrunched his face, "No way. She's a great friend but, when she gets angry," he lowered his voice and whisper confidentially "it's kind of scary." The blonde nodded sagely all-too-familiar with the savage side of the fairer sex. "Um Naruto," the small boy blushed "do you want to get started now."

"Well if you want to," and then he quickly added "but you don't have to if you don't want too."

"No, I like doing this stuff. It is just," he trailed off and scratched the back of his calf muscle with one of his feet, "I was thinking maybe we could do things you want to do tonight because you know tomorrow?"

The older boy was slightly surprised since Konohamaru is usually the one pushing to do new things. His cheeks reddened almost in perceptively, there was at least one position he did want to try but, first things first. "Okay then but, I think we should take a shower first."

"Together," the boy said hopefully.

The genin agreed and headed towards the bathroom to take his second shower of the day. Turning on the water he allowed it to heat up for a minute before taking his clothes off. Turning to tell his friend to hop in the words caught in his throat.

The boy was already naked as the day he was born but, Naruto was pretty sure that he didn't have such an erection on that day. It stuck straight up and the blonde wondered why his mouth was so suddenly dry. His friend started toward him his hands behind his back making no attempt to hide his package. The smaller boy's rod bounced up and down slightly with every step.

Naruto's penis responded rapidly swelling to its full four inches. His eyes stayed fixated on Konohamaru until the boy stopped right in front of him frowning. "You're leaking."

The reduced blood flow to Naruto's brain made it difficult to understand the question at first. He looked down and saw that it was indeed leaking. A clear liquid leaked from the little slit on his tip. For a second he was concerned before he remembered Iruka had told him about this. "It's pre-cum. Your body produces it when you get excited." Naruto wasn't sure but he thought this was the first time that this had happened to him.

Konohamaru scrutinized it for a minute before leaning in and sniffing. "It doesn't smell like come."

"Well, it can still get a girl pregnant. Now come on we're wasting water." His young friend gave it a gentle squeeze forcing more liquid out before letting go and hopping in the shower. Naruto grimaced resisting the temptation to jerk off right there. Instead he jumped in and concentrated on washing himself. His erection softened if only slightly.

"Can you do my back," Konohamaru questioned leaning his head back to look at him.

"Sure," Naruto said taking the washcloth and soap he offered. It wasn't until he realized he had to kneel that he regretted his decision. His friends butt was just about at eye level and that brought back memories of that dream. Time had made it less vivid in his memory but it still made him uncomfortable. He moved quickly and with relief announced, "Done."

Standing back up Naruto closed his eyes as his friend turned around to let the water wash the soap off his back. Turning his face into the miniature rain storm, he enjoyed the warm drops hitting his face. Because he had his eyes closed the single lick on the tip of his erection came as a complete surprise.

"What are you doing?" Naruto said stepping back.

Konohamaru looked up at him confused. "I was going to do what we did last time."

"But you didn't like that last time, remember."

"I want to try it again. I've been thinking about it and as long as you can give me a little warning I'll be okay," he smiled proudly.

"Well, save it for the bedroom," Naruto could see it now, as he ejaculated he would fall backwards cracking his head open and missing the exam or worse falling forward landing on something else. He would never live that down. Years later, when he would be Hokage people would still be whispering about why he missed his exam.

After another minute or so of washing Naruto turned off the water and they hop out and started to dry off. They were both still stiff. Konohamaru being smaller finished fairly quickly. "I'm going to wait in the bedroom," he said smiling before scampering out of the bathroom and closing the door not bothering to put anything on.

Naruto followed a minute later his dick leading the way. He rounded the corner expecting his friend to be sitting on the bed or something but, he wasn't there. "Konohamaru," he said to the empty air before hearing the running of bare feet. The blonde turned just in time to see his small friend leaping at him.

He caught the boy in mid air stumbling towards the bed before falling onto it. The Academy student grinned down at him there two scrotums touching each other, "Give up?"

Naruto grinned back and in a show of pure strength flipped the boy over. Pinning Konohamaru's legs in the air between his knees and elbows he held him there for a second. "Give up?"

"Never," Konohamaru shouted in the most defiant tone a naked nine-year-old could muster before trying to squirm free. Naruto held him fast enjoying his struggles. Using his free hands he attacked the boy's ribs running his fingers up and down his ribs. The Third's grandson wasn't particularly ticklish but, in under a minute he was shouting, "I give I give."

The blonde relented but, only in the tickling department. His shaft was pinned against the smaller stomach and he moved it back-and-forth a little unthinkingly smearing pre-cum across it. "You ready?" Konohamaru nodded vigorously. Naruto let his legs go and said, "Roll back for a second," his friend did so by grabbing his ankles and polling back on them.

Grabbing the nearby pillow he placed it by his knees, "Roll back." Naruto grab the smaller boy's feet and guided them to his shoulders. It had been a while since they had done something together. Secretly he admitted to himself he was looking forward to doing it again as was Konohamaru but, his friend would have to wait a little while longer to get off.

"Push your knees together," Naruto instructed. His friend did so and the blonde wrapped his own arms around the boy's thighs. Naruto pushed his erection between Konohamaru's legs. His eyes widened at how amazing it felt to have his member surrounded by flesh. He started to move his hips allowing his penis through the other side. After the first few thrusts he increased his pace. The faster he went the longer his strokes became now not only moving in and out but, up and down.

Konohamaru seemed transfixed watching as Naruto's tip popped in and out from between his thighs. After a few minutes the blonde could feel a stirring from deep within. With one last deep thrust he came. Several drops of the milky white substance landed on his young friend's stomach, chest and one drop even landed on the boy's throat.

Naruto collapsed to the side panting still feeling like he was at the peak of his orgasm. Feeling the bed shift, he knew Konohamaru was sitting up and he reached for the role of toilet paper he had started keeping under his bed. "Here," he said handing it to his friend.

From his side Naruto watched as the boy cleaned himself of his sperm. Hopping off of the bed wordlessly he tossed the toilet paper into the wastebasket. While his bedmate was gone the blonde shifted around so that his feet and head dangled off the side of the bed. He grinned at the upside down world and particularly Konohamaru as his erection shifted up and down as he walked back to the bed.

The older boy reached a hand out grabbing the smaller boy's arm pulling him closer to him. "Can I try that," the Thirds grandson asks hopefully.

The genin grinned and threw an arm around him pulling him closer. His friend's penis was now only an inch away from his mouth. "Maybe later," and with that he enveloped his friend's little erection. The little boy groaned as the taller of the two compare this to the last time. Before the hardened flesh had kind of pushed against the roof of his mouth but this time it was pushing against his tongue which was much softer. The difference was definitely noticed by Konohamaru judging by his grown.

As suddenly as he inhaled the member Naruto released it to his partner's disappointment. Lowering his head even more he pulled the boy closer so that his tight scrotum rested on his chin. Then Naruto lifted him and twisting slammed him onto the bed. Konohamaru squealed in delight as the mattress bounced them up and down. The blonde licked his friend's sack before concentrating on the little rod again. He swirled his tongue around the little member making sure to cover every possible inch.

"Hey Naruto," Konohamaru broke off as the older boy hit a particularly sensitive spot. "Can you move up a little?"

The teen pause and look down. The younger boy's head was almost between his legs and even as Naruto watch Konohamaru reached up grabbing his partially hard member. Moving his knees up a little his young friend stroked his penis bringing it to his full length again. The taller boy went back to his own work as the smaller stroked his member.

What happened next was quite unexpected for Naruto at least. Konohamaru rapidly flipped his tongue back and forth over the underside of his tip. The feeling was so pleasurable and distracting that he almost forgot about his own work but, was reminded with a thrust from his little friend. A moment later his friend had a dry climax.

The young ninja released the softening member and looked between his legs at Konohamaru still working at bringing him to a second orgasm for the night. His little friend switched from using his tongue to sucking directly on the older boys tip. Naruto could feel the tongue explore around his little head and he even felt the tip of it force its way into his small slit. That was the last straw, "Konohamaru I'm going," he couldn't finish.

Konohamaru pulled back immediately a thin clear strand of liquid continuing to connect his friend's lips to his penis. After a few additional strokes Naruto came for the second time that night although in a greatly reduced quantity. Only two drops came out both hitting Konohamaru's face.

Naruto collapsed having enough forethought not to do it on his smaller friend. They lay like that for several minutes enjoying a particularly intense afterglow. Surprisingly Naruto was the first to recover sitting up and grabbing some of the toilet paper. He cleaned the younger boy's face of his come and wiped his brow clear of sweat.

Konohamaru smiled up at him his face as red as a tomato. "Are you up for more?"

Naruto laughed, "I don't think I could."

His friend nodded, "Can you get my pajamas? I don't think I can stand right now."

The blonde nodded although he would be perfectly happy to fall asleep right here and now the way they were. Standing Naruto put on his own pajamas including his nightcap, not wanting to be the only person naked in his bed. He stumbled into the kitchen where Konohamaru had left his backpack and started to dig through it.

The pajamas were obvious being a light green color with the symbol for their village printed all over them. Bringing them back to the bedroom he had to help Konohamaru get dressed. Sliding on the bottom first he then helped him to sit up. As he buttoned his friend's top Konohamaru spoke. "Can girls do stuff like we do?"

Naruto couldn't think for a second being rather exhausted. "Well, when a man and a woman have sex it's supposed to be good for both of them so I suppose so but, I don't know how it would be done."

"Does that mean we had sex?"

"No," Naruto answered. Iruka had not covered homosexuality and the white book was kind of vague on the whole subject.

Konohamaru nodded yawning, "Well good night."

"Goodnight Konohamaru."

The two of them fell asleep quickly and deeply. They laid on their sides facing in the same direction. Naruto had an arm casually thrown around Konohamaru's stomach. Over the course of the night the two move closer and closer to each other until they were spooning. Both of them were blissfully unaware that their world was going to change tomorrow.

* * *

Authors note: Well hopefully that made up for the last chapter. Anyway I'm closing the poll with the next update so this is your last chance to help select the next story.


	9. Funeral

Rain pelted the mourners who had gathered to pay their final respects to the Third Hokage. The crowd was so large that it had spilled off the roof and into the streets. Naruto hadn't thought that there were even this many people in the village. He thought it was strange, comparing this funeral to his first. Everything was different, from the location to the weather. When he had been nine years old, one of his classmates had died. One day the kid hadn't shown up at the academy and two days later they were told he was in the hospital. The day after that he had died.

The whole class had been given the day off to attend the funeral and at first Naruto wasn't going to go. His classmate hadn't been a friend, but he hadn't been one of the kids who picked on him either. He had always just been there in the background. Iruka had insisted he come and had even bought a miniature version of the outfit he was wearing now.

That memory made him think of another nine-year-old who was standing next to him. Konohamaru had pretty much attached himself to Naruto's side the moment he saw him. The kid had remained eerily silent, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him and his little fists clenched at his sides. Watching him from the corner of his eye, he saw Iruka lean down next to him and say, "It's okay to cry."

The little boy didn't respond and the blonde turned his attention away from him as the service began. It was a simple, but slow service. Two people said a lot of things that Naruto didn't listen to, he admired in his own memories of the old man. Then it came time for the flower thing and while Konohamaru was gone, Iruka leaned over to him and said, "Maybe you should have a talk with him."

Naruto frowned at his old instructor, but he just gave him a look. After that, the service ended and the storm started to break. He was about to go over to his teammates when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Konohamaru stared up at him and said. "I don't want to go home. Can I stay at your place?"

The teen wasn't sure what to do. When the Third had been alive, Konohamaru had had an open invitation to stay at his place, but somebody else had to be looking after him now, right? Scratching the back of his head he looked around until his eyes fell on Asuma. "Maybe you should ask your uncle first?"

His friend glanced over at his uncle, who had gathered his team around him. "Okay." Naruto watched as his young friend walked away his shoulders slumped, eyes downcast. There really was something wrong with him.

"Naruto Uzumaki," the voice that had called out his name was unfamiliar and he turned to face a middle-aged man. Neither of them smiled but the older man held out a letter and said, "I was an assistant to the Third Hokage. He entrusted me to deliver this letter to you after his death."

The teen hesitantly reached out and took the letter. He examined the plain envelope with his name on it and when he looked up again the man was already gone. "My uncle said it was okay," Konohamaru said from behind him.

Turning, he hid the letter, although he didn't know why he felt the need. "All right let's go," he smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

The two friends walked along the rain slickened streets in silence. Naruto was uncomfortable with quiet as a rule, but even he couldn't think of anything to say right now. Entering his apartment, Konohamaru headed straight for his bedroom. Kicking off his footwear, he hopped onto the bed crossing his legs and resting his chin on his hands.

The older of the two leaned against the door frame and stared at his younger friend for a minute. "Do you want to talk?" Konohamaru shook his head no. "Are you hungry?" again he shook his head. "Do you want to train?" Naruto asked hopefully. Again a negative answer and the blonde sighed. There was only one thing left and he really didn't want to do it right now, "Do you want to do something from the book?" The little boy shook his head back and forth.

At a loss of what to do, Naruto retreated to the kitchen. Grabbing a soda for himself, he hesitated for a second before grabbing one for Konohamaru too. Coming back into his bedroom he placed the spare can on the nightstand before joining his friend on the bed. Cracking open his can, he stared at his friend who was picking at his toes.

Minutes passed with the only noise coming from the faint humming of the refrigerators motor and the sound of water rushing through the pipes. Then, Konohamaru spoke, "Do you think my grandpa hates me?"

The question was so unexpected that Naruto actually blinked several times to make sure he hadn't imagined it. "No, why would you think that?"

His friend didn't look up as he answered, "Well, I could've spent time with him the night before he died, but I wanted to stay with you instead."

The blonde blushed, remembering that night, "You didn't," he trailed off. He was about to say that there was no way he could have known that his grandfather was going to die, but even his limited social graces knew that would be the wrong thing to say. "He said it was okay, remember?"

For the first time that day, his friend met his eyes. "I don't think he would've if he knew what we were doing."

Naruto chewed on his lower lip thinking about that. "Well, Konohamaru, he did give me the book and said it was okay."

The boy stared at him unblinkingly for a few seconds and then a smile slowly spread across his face, "Really?"

"Yeah, he gave me that book when I went to your birthday party."

His friend stared at him for a minute and then quietly asked, "Really?" Naruto nodded. "I wanted to tell him but I was afraid," Konohamaru said, then as if he flipped a switch, he broke into tears and shouted. "My grandpa's gone."

The crying boy threw himself at Naruto, who had no idea what to do, he only had the vaguest memories of being comforted himself. Hesitantly, he put his arms around his smaller friend who buried his face deeper into the blonde's chest. He didn't know why, but he started to rub Konohamaru's back and tried not to think about the snot that was probably going to end up on his good clothes.

Naruto wasn't sure how long his friend cried, but when the kid stopped, he looked down and saw that Konohamaru was asleep. Deciding not to wake him, he gently placed his sleeping head on the pillow and quietly left the room.

His shirt was wet, but fortunately, he didn't see any stains on it. Slipping it off, he was about to throw it in the clothes hamper when he felt the letter that he had put in his pocket earlier. Curious to what the Third would want to say to him, he took a seat at his kitchen table before opening the letter.

Naruto, if you are reading this then I have died. I've had no foreshadowing of it, but as Hokage I must be prepared to lay down my life for the village without hesitation. True leaders, and I do not only mean of just this village, must always put the welfare of those under him above their own needs and wants.

I leave with few regrets but no life is ever complete. My biggest regret will be not being able to see my grandson, Konohamaru, grow up. I know there are many that will take care of him, but I still worry. That is why I would like to ask you to remain Konohamaru's friend. I know it is a strange thing to ask, but as time goes on, friends sometimes drift apart. I merely ask that you go that extra distance to try to heal any rifts between the two of you that might arise.

As for your physical relationship, I do not know how far it has gone and I do not know where it is heading. However, as long as you two both agree, you have my blessing.

I have watched you from time to time play with my grandson and his two friends. I can see you generally care about them and that is why I'm confident in saying you will make a great Hokage one day.

Sincerely

Hiruzen Sarutobi

Naruto placed his head on the table, the Formica cool against his forehead. The last line had made him feel strange on the inside. Nobody had really believed he would be Hokage before and to have the Third say-so, well that was proof.

He heard Konohamaru coming down the short hallway and he hid the letter. His friend paused in the doorway, a soda in his hand. He took a sip before saying, "Sorry, I was acting like a baby."

Naruto stood and smiled, "You needed it." Now that he was feeling better himself, he had hatched a plan to lighten the mood. "Did I ever tell you about the time your grandfather visited my class for the first time?" Konohamaru shook his head. The blonde threw an arm around his shoulder, steering him back to the bedroom. "Well there was this one kid in my class that was always eating and he stole your grandfather's lunch."

For the rest of the day the two of them swapped funny stories about the old man. Konohamaru knew more of them obviously, but in the end, he was smiling and Naruto did a mental victory dance. The teen didn't tell his friend about the letter.

* * *

Three days later, Naruto waiting outside of the Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Spotting Iruka coming up the street, he waved like a hyperactive child. His old sensei waved back and they sat down together. After ordering, Iruka turned to his former student and asked, "I haven't seen you much since you graduated. What have you been up to lately?"

The blonde screwed up his face, like a child that had been told to clean his room, "Well at first they had us scouring the city to pick up any stray weapons. They don't want any kids hurting themselves by accident or something like that. How's the Academy coming along? I ran into Konohamaru earlier and he said he had to fix the chalkboard."

"Oh it's fine. We'll probably start classes again tomorrow, which reminds me," he reached behind himself and pulled out a thin black book and dropped it on the counter.

Even though Naruto was no longer a student, the sight of the grade book filled him with terror. In the past, when that book had been brought out, he had been informed that he was either failing or about to fail something. "Why did you bring that?" he asked, trepidation filling his voice. There was no way he could be put back in the Academy, was there? He had, after all, completed the classes, if only barely.

"Take a look at the trio's grades," Iruka said, stirring his miso ramen.

"Who?" Naruto asked.

"Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon, they're inseparable, which is actually kind of convenient. If I catch one of them doing something wrong it's a good guess that the other two are involved somehow."

As if the book could bite him, the genin opened it carefully. The names of the students were in a column going down the side and the subject matters were written at the top. He easily found their names and traced their grades. With slight annoyance, he noted that even in the beginning their grades were better than his ever were. However, as he turned the page to their latest grades, Naruto noticed a sharp rise in their grades in several subjects. With effort, the blonde suppressed his smile of satisfaction. "They look like they're doing fine." he said nervously.

"Yes," Iruka said nodding. "At first, I thought Konohamaru might be helping Moegi with shuriken practice. Even though he's not supposed to have access to weapons, I'm sure he can get them, but then their grades started to improve elsewhere. At first, I thought they were just cheating off each other, but then they mastered the transformation technique at an astonishing speed, particularly the two with civilian backgrounds. So I came to the conclusion that they were receiving help from somebody else. You wouldn't happen to know who that would be, do you?"

Naruto gulped nervously, Iruka tended to give students a chance to come clean if he knew they had done something wrong. If somebody confessed, their punishment would be less severe. "Well, maybe I helped them with a few things but it was," he trailed off. "I'm sorry." his shoulders slumped ready for a lecture.

Iruka laughed, "I'm not upset Naruto. I pretty much knew it was you when they pulled out that Pudding Pudding Technique. That had your fingerprints all over it and while I'm not pleased about that, overall I would say you had a positive influence over them. So, do you think you could work on these other subjects with them? You know, the one where their grades haven't improved."

Naruto was so relieved that he wasn't in trouble that he downed the remaining contents of his bowl. "Well I'm trying."

"How so?" The older of the two ask.

Naruto grinned and showed his empty bowl, "Order me another and I'll tell you all about it."

Three bowls later, Naruto left, leaving Iruka much poorer for his visit. He decided to go for a walk and enjoyed his last day before his sensei was going to start them on a training schedule again. It was then that he heard a very familiar voice call out his name. Turning, he saw the trio running to catch up to him, "Hey guys."

"Hey, boss can you hang out. You don't look busy." Konohamaru said panting, trying to catch his breath.

"I guess so."

"Good, then you can show us that tree walking thing. Remember, you promised," Moegi said with all the hope of a kid asking if they could open their presents.

Naruto scratched the back of his head nervously. It wasn't like he had forgotten, but now that it was show time he was suddenly nervous. How good could his plan be if he hadn't felt confident enough to brag about it to Iruka? "You know there's a lot of"

"Hey, you're not going back on your word, are you?" Konohamaru said folding his arms and trying to look intimidating.

The blonde felt his eye twitch in annoyance. "Fine, follow me, we need to find the right spot."

The trio followed him into the woods like ducklings follow their mother as he searched for what he needed. He eventually found a fallen tree near a pond with a stream running into it. The blonde created a clone and jumped onto the log. "All right listen up, before you even try to start running up trees there are two things you have to do first."

The three nodded eagerly and Naruto sent a silent wish that this would work in case anything was watching over him. "When you do a Jutsu like Transformation you channel your chakra to your center, but to climb a tree, you have to channel it to your feet." As he was speaking, he was also doing as he was describing. "Then," his cloned gave him a shove from behind, "you stick to the tree."

"Okay, can we try it now to," Konohamaru said bouncing up and down on his heels.

Naruto jumped off of the log. "Go at it and when you think you're ready I'll give you a little push."

Konohamaru and Moegi jumped up onto the log eagerly with Udon following reluctantly. All three had an intense look of concentration on their face as they started. Predictably, Konohamaru was the first to say he had it and promptly fell off the log at the slightest nudge, but was caught by the clone. Then Moegi channeled too much chakra into it and cracked the wood. He told her to let up, glad she didn't have to fall on her head to learn that lesson.

About thirty minutes later, they were still going at it and Naruto was getting bored. Besides the occasional push to either Konohamaru or Moegi he didn't have anything to do. Udon had remained silent the entire time and the blonde was starting to wonder if he was even trying.

"I think I got it," the bespectacled boy said suddenly.

Okay, maybe he was working hard after all, Naruto thought. "Okay, here goes attempt one thousand three hundred and twenty one."

"Hey, we're nowhere near that number," Konohamaru said opening one eye to glare at him.

Naruto grinned to himself as he gave Udon a slight push. The boy didn't even sway. The blonde's doppelganger gave him a harder shove from behind and still he didn't move. "Udon you have it!"

As soon as those words left Naruto's mouth, the boy was bombarded with questions by his two friends. Udon smiled sheepishly and sniffed. "Try using half as much chakra as you would use to transform."

Moegi and Konohamaru immediately shut up and then in unison shouted, "Ready!"

To the genin's surprise, they both did have it. "Why didn't you tell us it was that simple?" Konohamaru demanded.

The young teen was having a very similar thought about his own sensei at that moment. "Well, no one ever told me."

"Well, what's the next step anyways boss?"

Before Naruto could answer, Moegi interrupted him. "Can we take a break, I'm tired?"

"Yeah, me too," Udon added.

"Come on guys, this is serious ninja stuff here. We can't just take a break." Konohamaru protested.

"Do you want to go swimming in that pond Udon?" Moegi asked, ignoring her other friend.

"Sure," he replied. "You want to join us Naruto?"

The blonde was taken aback by the question, "I don't have a suit."

The orange haired girl grabbed his hand and pulled him along, "We don't either."

Judging by the sound behind him, Konohamaru kicked the log in frustration and then ran to catch up to them. The girl let go of his hand about twenty feet away from the pond and at that point he still had not quite caught on to what was happening. Udon and Moegi both started to strip and that was when Naruto started to get nervous.

Sure, in the Forests of Death he had gone swimming in his boxers and he hadn't thought it was a big thing. Girls were different. Their underwear was different, and judging by the time he had accidentally walked into the girl's changing room before a swimming lesson, they very sensitive about the subject and he really didn't know what to do now.

"Hey Naruto," he looked down instinctively at the girl and noticed that she was wearing… boxers. "Can you put my clothes over that branch there? I don't want bugs to crawl into them."

"Yeah, mine too." Udon added, holding his own bundle of clothes up.

He took both sets of clothes still slightly surprised. Sure, Moegi's chest wasn't different than a boy's right now, but it just seemed strange to him if nobody else.

Another set of clothes hit him in his head. "Put those with the rest." Konohamaru shouted running by in a pair of black boxers.

He had to jump to place the clothes over the branch and after that he decided to join them. Considering they had complained about being tired, the two civilians were very active in the water. There was a lot of splashing and he even joined them in playing tag in the deeper part of the pond. Eventually, he ended up throwing one of them and then they all wanted a turn.

They all looked a little strange. Moegi's hair was wet, and while it was still somehow staying together, it was now sticking out from either side of her head. Konohamaru, like the others, wore his goggles for their proper use and every time he came to be thrown, Naruto remembered another time when he'd used them for something else. Udon just looked strange without his glasses and he wondered how ninja's with glasses handled swimming on missions.

He made a mental note to ask his sensei or better yet, Kabuto, who actually wore a pair. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen the nice Genin since the invasion. It probably wasn't a big deal since he couldn't remember seeing him before the exam either, but Naruto hoped nothing bad had happened to him.

After a while, the cold water drove them out of the pond. Naruto found a spot of grass where the sun broke through the trees. He sat down to dry off a little before putting his clothes back on. To his surprise, Moegi sat down next to him and then leaned into him. Udon followed suit on his other side. Konohamaru, not to be outdone, sat between the blonde's legs and leaned back against his chest grinning up at him.

At first he wasn't comfortable, but after a little repositioning it was kind of nice. The blonde was not used to casual human contact. Growing up, the best he ever had was the occasional pat on the back or very rarely a hug from Iruka.

They started talking mostly of inconsequential things. They started talking about the Academy, which hadn't changed since he graduated. Moegi hated that they separated the class into boys and girls when they learned about blending into the background. Naruto could sympathize since he always preferred to standout and assured her that the boy's class wasn't any better.

When the subject turned to families, though, he was silent just like Konohamaru was. Still, he learned a little about his two other little friends. Udon had a two year old brother who might or might not attend the Academy depending on how his older sibling did. Moegi has an older sister who was as she described as a "girly girl" who was obsessed with clothes and boys. Apparently, her parents never planned to send either of their daughters to the Academy, but she had demanded it when she learned that her longtime friend and neighbor was going there.

Udon was the one that broke this blissful state by pulling away from Naruto and standing. "We have to get going Moegi or we will be late." She sighed and pulled away too.

"Do you need some," Naruto trailed off as Moegi broke into a sprint and then jumped, grabbing her shirt and pants from the tree branch. A moment later she did it again.

"Thanks for today Naruto," Udon said as Moegi tossed him his clothes. "Tomorrow can you show us the next step?"

"If I don't have a mission." Naruto answered as they left. Konohamaru stayed where he was, apparently in no hurry to leave. "So do you three go swimming like that a lot?"

"The public pool's always crowded." The little boy tilted his head back and his dark eyes met his sky blue ones, "I thought it was weird at first too, but Moegi is special."

That was one way of putting it the blonde thought. For some reason he couldn't picture any of the girls he knew running around without a shirt on no matter how young they were. Then, he said playfully, "Hey, are you sure you don't like her?"

Konohamaru rolled over so he could scowl up at him, "I told you she's just a friend."

"It's alright I won't tell anyone." Naruto added, teasingly pinching his friend's cheek. The amused smirk on his face faded instantly when he felt a small hand plunge into the opening of his boxers. The small fingers felt along his scrotum, fingertips feeling his recently descended testicles. Blood instantly pumped into his organ, making it stiff as rigor mortis, "Quit it." Konohamaru grinned and let his fingers trace up his stiffened shaft before grasping it, letting his small thumb rub the head. "Stop." Naruto said firmly, pushing him away.

The dark-haired boy frowned confused, "I was just playing with you."

The blonde scooted back before he took pity on him and said, "I know and it felt nice, but you can't do that in public. What if Moegi or Udon came back for something and saw us like that? Or somebody else?"

Konohamaru frowned, "I didn't think about that." Then he brightened, "Can we go back to your place?"

"Yes." the blonde's single word answer was heavily influenced by the fact that his brain was not receiving the accustomed amount of blood. They dressed quickly, both of them having to use the trick to conceal their obvious arousal although Konohamaru's arousal was significantly less obvious than his older friend's. The smaller one jumped onto the larger back for a piggyback ride. Naruto felt the little hard nodule press into the base of his back which only encouraged him.

Once the two of them entered the city limits, Naruto hopped up to the roofs for faster travel to the delight of his passenger. There were a few people who were actually up there with him working on their roofs and most of them took the time to shout at him. Not that he cared at the moment.

Entering his apartment via its little balcony, he tossed his passenger onto the bed. Konohamaru bounced once on the bed and grinned up at him. "Hey, can we try something new?"

Naruto blushed slightly, "Sure, whatever you want." He almost regretted those words the moment he spoke them.

"Great! Take off all your clothes and then lie on the bed with your head on your pillow and your eyes close."

The older of the two was definitely regretting his words now, but he wouldn't go back on them. Still, for some reason it seemed to take him longer to strip than it did for his little friend. Naruto had to admit, though, once he was lying there it was kind of exciting not knowing what will happen next.

He felt more than heard Konohamaru climb onto the bed and a second later the boy was straddling him over his thighs. A moment later, he felt his little friend start to creep up the length of his body. The kid paused just below his elbows, pausing for what seemed like an eternity before saying, "Keep them closed."

Naruto didn't even attempt to hide his grin, but he was totally unprepared for what happened next. Something brushed up against his lips. It was soft and warm in a way which was definitely not a little penis. For some reason, he suddenly thought of Sasuke, which was an image he would have preferred not to have at that moment.

Opening his eyes, he suddenly realizes why he had thought of his friend and rival. Konohamaru was kissing him. He tried to pull away, but he couldn't go too far at the moment. "You were kissing me?" he said answering the unasked question.

His bed partner frowned, "Yeah, I know. Couples do it all the time in the park. It looks like fun."

"Konohamaru, were both guys. We can't do that with each other."

His friend frowned, "Why not?"

"Well, you're only supposed to kiss a girl you really like."

"Can't we just practice on each other?"

Naruto didn't have an immediate answer to that. That kind of made sense, it would be like sparring which was just a way to get used to fighting. Another part of his mind objected and a third part commented that his second kiss had already been with another guy. Still, he had already had Konohamaru's dick in his mouth, so would his lips really be that bad? "We tell nobody about this?"

"Of course." his friend's grin at that moment rivaled any of the blondes. Then their lips met again and Naruto gave his third kiss to Konohamaru.

Neither of them really knew what they were doing and both of them just tried to copy what they had seen others do. Unfortunately, breathing was not something that could be easily observed and after a few seconds of rubbing their lips against each other, they had to breakaway. Naruto stuck his tongue out to wet his lips and Konohamaru chose that moment to reengage their kiss. They both broke away laughing.

"That kind of tickles." the dark-haired boy commented.

"Really?" the blonde asked. "Stick out your tongue."

The boy did as he was asked and Naruto stuck his own tongue out. At first he hesitated, but saliva wouldn't be the first one of his fluids on this tongue. Hesitantly, he ran the tip of his tongue along his friend's until he ran into his upper lip. It was strange, but kind of nice.

"Did you like that?" Konohamaru nodded, his cheeks darkening a little. "Open your mouth." Naruto laughed as his friend opened as wide as possible, "Not like that. Just a little." he showed what he meant.

The next time they kissed, Naruto pushed his to``ngue into the smaller boy's mouth. At first it was just the tips that touched, but since they were just practicing, he felt like experimenting. The teen explored the top part of his mouth, from the back of his teeth to the soft part in the back. He even explored the gap between his friend's teeth where he recently lost a tooth.

When they had started his erection had faltered but had not gone limp. With the mouth exploration it returned to its full glory, even if that was only four inches. He was able to free his arms fairly easy and first he threw them both around his partner, pushing him closer to him. His friend's erection pushed against his stomach. Then, he drew one of his hands down his bed mates back, intending to relieve himself.

A second before his hand would've left Konohamaru's butt cheek, the boy broke their kiss. "Can I do it? I want to try something."

Naruto barely had enough time to nod when their lips were pushed together again. With his mouth occupied and his hands now on Naruto's shoulders, he didn't seem to have anything free to do the deed. A moment later, Konohamaru prove that theory wrong.

Naruto's erection was plastered against his stomach and when he felt something cool slide beneath it he was surprised to say the least. Then he recognized that it was a foot and he was even more surprised. The toes wiggled their way down to the base of his shaft before slipping up between the big toe and its neighbor.

Konohamaru started a pumping motion and every time he reached the base of his shaft his heel put pressure against the tip of Naruto's penis. The feeling was strange while also being pleasant. After a few strokes, his other foot got in on the action as a sort of backstop. His friend broke the kiss as a blissful expression crossed his face as an orgasm hit him. His partner exploded seconds later, too soon to tell if he liked the new methods.

The smaller boy rolled off of him and onto his side. They both laid there for a minute. Naruto had just decided to bestow the title of the most surprising academy student on to Konohamaru, who said while laughing, "I can feel it on my toes."

Given recent events, the blonde was able to extract what "it" was easily. Not wanting a stain, he sat up and to grab some toilet paper when his curiosity got the best of him. Glancing down at his friend's feet, he saw the now familiar milky white liquid on the top of his friend's feet. Curiously, he craned his neck around to take a look at the soles. There were a lot more of his baby makers here. A particularly large drop was dripping down his toes and was in danger of landing on the sheets.

Without thinking, he put a finger out to catch it. Konohamaru pulled his feet away giggling. His reaction was way out of proportion to the small action and that was when the blonde realized something. The Third's grandson was very ticklish when it came to the bottom of his feet. He grinned sinisterly and went on the attack.

Two minutes later, Konohamaru was panting again, a grin plastered on his face, but this time it was caused by something a little more wholesome than an orgasm. Of course, Naruto had to remind himself that he had either just rubbed off sperm onto his hands or into his friend's skin. He didn't know if sperm was like lotion which could get into your skin.

"Can I move in with you?"

"What?"

"Can I stay here all the time?" Konohamaru rephrased his question, looking a way.

"I don't think you're uncle would be okay with that." A small smile crossed his lips as he remembered being little and asking Teuchi if he could live at his stand.

"I don't think he would care." The boy paused and then added, "I don't think he likes me."

"What makes you think that?"

"The way he acts. Grandpa worked a lot, but when he wasn't he would do stuff with me. Sometimes we would kick a ball around or even wrestle like we just did and sometimes we just talked. Uncle Asuma doesn't even ask what I did when he comes home."

Naruto had no idea what to say. "Maybe,"

Konohamaru cut him off with an outburst, "He forgot my cake."

"What?"

"For my birthday party, he forgot to pick it up. Then yesterday he yelled at me because he tripped over my sandals in the entryway, but I put them where grandpa always told me to put them. I doubt he even knows my friends names."

The genin was about to ruffle his friends hair affectionately, but then he remembered what was on his hand and patted his thigh instead. "Maybe we can get the same setup we had with your grandfather." Konohamaru didn't say anything to that.

After a few minutes they started to get dressed. When his friend hopped off the bed, he left several faint footprints on the floor. Ordinarily, Naruto would have pointed this out, but he didn't think the boy would find it funny now.

Fully dressed, the smaller boy asked, "Can you walk me home?"

The blonde smiled weakly, "Sure, just let me wash my hands first, they're a little sticky." The moment he turn on the faucet there was three distinct knocks at the door. Thinking it might be his sensei, he called to his guest, "Can you get that?"

A moment later he heard Konohamaru surprised voice, "Uncle, what are you doing here?"

* * *

Authors note: Originally I was going to have Naruto thrown off of the cliff earlier and as a result be hospitalized earlier. That would mean he wouldn't be there to save Lee and the entire Sand team would be thrown out of the exam. This would of course change the entire invasion arc but, I chickened out in the end.

The final votes are in and winter is Healing, after the battle on the bridge Naruto learns that Inari is still only half healed pairing Naruto X Inari. A Darker World came in a close second and I was happy to see Springtime Love have more support than I thought it would, that is one story I am different going to write eventually. Don't look at me like that I like odd but reasonable pairings.


	10. Bad to Worse and Good Again

Naruto stepped out of the bathroom wiping his hands on his pants. The two Sarutobi shifted their gazes on to him the older expression unreadable and the younger just confused. He smiled realizing that there were very few reasons a Jonin would come to his apartment. There was probably some super secret mission they wanted him to go on, "What's up?"

Asuma took that as an invitation to come in. Stepping around his nephew he spoke to him, "Konohamaru go home. I need to talk to Naruto." The small boy glared at his uncle before looking at his friend clearly wanting to stay.

The blonde could only shrug. His little friend surrendered without a word closing the door behind him. If the genin had been more observant he would've recognized that this was out of character for the kid. Instead he opened his mouth to ask about the mission when he was cut off by a raised hand.

Wordlessly the Jonin turned towards the door and placed his hand on the doorknob. Seconds passed and Naruto was about to ask what he was doing when the man suddenly yanked open the door. Konohamaru came stumbling into the entryway. The goggle wearing boy managed to look both sheepish and annoyed at the same time. Clearly he had been listening at the door.

Naruto had to bite his lip from laughing at his friend as his uncle gave him a gentle smile. "You're not that good yet. Go home.. I'm only going to be a few minutes here. So, why don't you set the plates out for dinner and I'll pick something up on the way home."

Konohamaru crossed his arms and turned to Naruto, "Tell me what he says tomorrow."

"Um, if I can," the blond answered remembering that tone from their first meeting.

The youngest Sarutobi nodded and straightened the goggles on his forehead. This time when he left Naruto could hear him going down the hallway. When the older man turned back to face him he still had a smile on his face. "He's a lot like me at that age but, a good kid overall. Stay away from him."

The genin blinked in confusion as the man's expression turned stony. A part of his mind realized belatedly that this meeting was not about a mission. So this had to be about the Kyuubi. An unfamiliar anger rose in him. In a way he was used to the glares but, that didn't mean he didn't hate them. Still, there had been fewer and fewer of them that he had noticed at least. His forehead protector did seem to grant him a certain level of respect and now to have it thrown back in his face at his apartment of all places was almost too much.. "Why," he growled.

Without batting an eye the man answered, "Because I know what you've been doing to him. My father left me a letter explaining things but, like so many things I have to disagree with him on this. However, even if he hadn't left me a letter I would have figured it out. After all why would a thirteen-year-old hang out with some little kid?"

"They're my friends," Naruto snapped not realizing that he had included the other two in his statement. He was still angry but, that was rivaling with embarrassment now.

The older man's eyebrows shot up, "Friends? You mean you do stuff with those two friends of his too?"

"Yeah, almost every day," his face suddenly when crimson when he realized his mistake, "we play ninja and I help them study," he clarified his stomach churning. While he did do stuff with Konohamaru the thought of doing stuff with the other two just made his stomach sick.

Asuma expression was unreadable and there was a few seconds of silence before he added, "Even so that doesn't give you any right to shove your dick up his ass."

The vulgar words made Naruto sick as a forgotten dream came back to him. He took a step back into the bathroom feeling the cool tiles underfoot. Still, even in the dark room he wanted to hide. He wanted to close the door and hope that the man would just go away. "We don't do that."

"And what do you mean by that?" The Jonin demanded as the young teen suddenly became very interested in the floor.

"Well," Naruto said grinding his big toe into the floor as if he was attempting to dig a hole he could escape through, "he's never asked and I really don't want to."

Seconds stretched into minutes and when the silence was finally broken it was done so in a whisper, "And how would he know anything about sex?"

The question almost sounded more like an accusation to the young Jinchuriki. "He looks through that book and fined something he wants to try." That statement wasn't completely true but, Konohamaru had not complained the one time he had taken charge.

"What book?"

Naruto perked up at that seeing an opportunity to get out from under his scrutiny if only for a few seconds. He darted out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. The book was exactly where Konohamaru had left it days ago. Handing the book over to Asuma he nervously added, "The Third let me borrow it."

When the Jonin took the book he looked at the cover for a long minute before opening to the index. "Do you think this changes something?" The blonde didn't respond. "I didn't think so."

As the man turned to leave Naruto finally found his voice, "You should try to be nicer to Konohamaru. Unless you really don't like him because that's what he thinks." Asuma looked over his shoulder at him but, said nothing as he left.

As soon as the door was closed Naruto leaned against it and slid to the ground bearing his head in his hands. That had gone badly. He could tell because he had the same sick feeling in his stomach that he had after taking a test. It wasn't so much the fear of losing his little bed warmer.

The rubbing, sucking and even kissing had been fun but, what he would really miss if he couldn't see Konohamaru anymore was the little moments of companionship. Like today after they had been swimming. To be part of a group, to have friends even if they were younger than himself was something he had become used to and he couldn't bear the thought of losing it.

* * *

The next day the young Jinchuriki mood had not improved. Ordinarily he came bounding down his apartment building stairs ready to attack the day and the challenges that it could bring. Today he trudged down the stairs much like a man walking to his execution. Lost in his thought he jumped straight into the air and landed on his butt when a hand landed on his shoulder. Rubbing his now sore ass he glared up at the white-haired man, "What do you want Pervy Sage?

The old perverts seemed amused by the blonde's overreaction, "Well I'm going on a little trip to find someone."

"Good for you," Naruto said brushing himself off and turning to leave.

"I thought you could come along and I could teach you a Jutsu or two."

The Genin paused for a second the word Jutsu acting very much like a shiny object in front of a baby's eyes. If it had been a few months ago he would've jumped at the opportunity without hesitation but now, other thoughts entered his mind. With the village still recovering from the attack should he leave and wouldn't he need permission too.

On the other hand becoming stronger would get him closer to his goal and if he was gone for awhile the Konohamaru situation might resolve itself. He wasn't sure which would be the right decision so he went with the opposite of what he wanted. "I have to go meet with my team for training."

As he turned to walk away the man said, "Is something wrong with you? I would've sworn you would have jumped at the opportunity to learn something the Fourth invented."

Naruto's ears perk up and then he broke into a run trying to escape temptation. He had really wanted to go, but at the same time he was determined to set a good example for Konohamaru and right now that's was more important than learning a cool new Jutsu that had been invented by one of the strongest ninja ever. Damn he wanted to go. Maybe he could get his sensei to teach him the Chidori. After all he could do anything that barely pubescent boy could.

Training turned out to be a bust. After some initial weapons training Kakashi had them meditate to further develop their chakra. Sitting still was ordinarily hard enough for him but, clearing his mind was impossible today. He kept thinking about Konohamaru or the opportunity he had passed up and when he did finally banish those thoughts he thought about how tired he was and had to fight to stay awake.

When the torture session ended, Naruto wasn't in a hurry to get up. That was until he felt a hand lift up his Hitai-ate and rest against his skin. He pulled back which caused him to roll on his back. He blinked up at the person who had startled him, "Sakura what are you doing?"

"Sorry, I wanted to check your temperature. You haven't been yourself today and I thought you might be sick."

Naruto felt his cheeks warm a little. "No, it's not that. I just didn't sleep well."

"Oh," she offered him a hand up, "Well, you should go to bed early tonight then." With that she turned and walked away leaving Naruto to replay the conversation in his head.

He was replaying the conversation for the third time enjoying every word when somebody shouted, "Boss," right behind him. For the third time that day somebody had successfully snuck up on him and to make it worse it was the entire Konohamaru core.

"Are you ready? We've been waiting in the woods for twenty minutes for your sensei to let you go." As he spoke he was bouncing up and down on his heels.

Either his uncle hadn't told him to stay away from him or equally likely he was ignoring the rule. At that moment though, with the three of them staring up at him he just didn't care. "Sure."

The spot they trained at yesterday was almost at the opposite end of the village but, fortunately there were a lot of fallen trees in the forest. A moment later he was standing on a log with the three staring up at him. Naruto still wasn't used to the three of them staring at him like he was their teacher or something but, he definitely liked it.

Summoning two clones on either side of him he began. "Okay, last time you learned how to use your chakra to grip the wood with the right strength. Now I want you to learn to move while gripping onto the wood." He took several steps to show what he meant. "The tricky part is you have to lessen the amount of chakra before lifting your foot or you'll stumble. However, if you don't remember to increase the amount when you're landing," one of the clones tugged on his arm pulling him off the log, "you lose your footing. So, who wants to try first?"

Naruto made a mental note never to give that option to them again as both Moegi's and Konohamaru's hands shot up simultaneously. They both started arguing with each other and he grabbed Udon just to shut them up. Dismissing one of his clones he grabbed the boy's wrist while his remaining clone grabbed the other. Udon who had been the first to master gripping the tree fell with the first tug on his arm. It was pretty much what the blonde had been expecting and the other two didn't fare any better.

They each went through it a couple of times before he remembered the advice that Sakura had whispered in his ear. After he related that to them it added a few steps but, they still weren't making it to the halfway point of the log. Naruto knew it would take time and at least they didn't have to worry about falling on their heads like he had.

Still, after about thirty minutes they ran into an unforeseen problem. Yesterday they had to just channel chakra to a different part of their body. Today they were constantly changing the flow and their little bodies were not use to it. They were sweating heavily and when Udon waved off his turn he decided to end the training for the day.

"Come on Naruto that isn't fair. Just because Udon is tired doesn't mean we can't go on," Konohamaru exclaimed panting..

"Yeah," Moegi added eloquently.

Crossing his arms the Genin shook his head and said, "I don't want you passing out from chakra exhaustion. That's no fun trust me."

"You can pass out because of that," the girl questioned her eyes widening.

Naruto nodded, "It's happened to me."

"When," Udon asked.

Naruto had actually passed out several times due to chakra exhaustion but, he quickly eliminated the last time because it had been during the invasion and that might upset Konohamaru. The first time was also out of the question since it involved the tree climbing exercise and if they knew how he learned it they would want to do it that way too. That left the Forest of Death and summoning Gamabunta. Since only one of those times was anything close to exciting there was only one option.

He edited the story a little. Removing anything involving the Fox's chakra and making himself look a little stronger than he probably was. By the time he finished his only slightly embellished story all three had questions. They vary from what it was like inside of a giant snake to what the first stage was like. Naruto did his best to answer them but, an hour later he was exhausted from trying to remember every detail he could.

The trio's interrogation probably would've continued if two of them didn't have to leave for dinner leaving him alone with Konohamaru. For the first time since Naruto had started their little training session he remembered his friend's uncle's words. "Stay away from him."

The boy stood and stepped onto the log balancing himself without the use of his chakra, "What did my uncle want yesterday?"

There had been a large part of Naruto hoping that he would forget to ask since he had no idea what he was going to say. He was saved from this predicament by an unfamiliar voice, "Aren't you ever alone?"

Naruto turned to face where the voice had come from and frowned. There were two men about twenty feet away. One was short and the other was tall. They were both dressed in similar black cloaks, but what he really noticed was that the taller man's skin was blue.

The smaller man took several steps forward as he spoke in a softer voice then his companions, "Naruto Uzumaki, come with us."

The young teens mind was not one for mental gymnastics but, there was something not right with these guys. He could only see the forehead protector of the one closer to him and it was his village but, it had an ugly scar across it which just seemed wrong. "Why?"

"Can't we just grab him," the taller one said annoyed.

"Because," the other said ignoring his partner's outburst, "if we fight your little friend will most likely become collateral damage."

The threat to his friend drew an immediate reaction from Naruto. Drawing a kunai he positioned himself between the two men and Konohamaru. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he was not going to allow his friend to be hurt.

"You know my brother. I wiped out my entire clan. Do you think you're better than they were?"

This was Sasuke's brother. That thought rolled around in his head several times before it really registered and with Konohamaru so close he didn't see any other options. "How do I know you won't hurt him?"

"I have no quarrel with him," the self-made orphan answered.

"Fine," Naruto threw his weapon to the ground just as Konohamaru called out his name but, he was cut off suddenly in mid syllable. The blonde turned just in time to catch him as he fell from the log. "You said you wouldn't hurt him!"

"He's under a Genjutsu. In two hours he will wake up with not even a headache now come with us."

The blonde checked to make sure his friend was breathing before he laid him on the ground. He had no intention of going with these people whoever the hell they were but, he had to get far away from Konohamaru before he tried anything. He took a step towards the man but, almost as he did so a kunai cut through the air causing the older Uchiha to jump back.

Naruto's head twisted around following the weapons path backwards to the man who had thrown it. Unnoticed by everyone Kakashi had appeared his normally covered eye exposed. "Naruto get Konohamaru out of here," his sensei and team leader ordered.

It took the Genin a half of a second to realize his change in fortune. Then he turned scooping up the unconscious boy and ran. There was an explosion and he risked a glance back. A thick cloud of smoke obscured his vision but, he thought he could make out four shapes in the cloud. Then he had to concentrate on not running into trees.

* * *

Two hours later Naruto was sitting next to a bed in Konoha Hospital. When he had reached the outskirts of the village he had run into a Chunin and had tried to explain the situation to him. However, even with an unconscious boy on his back the man had thought it was one of his practical jokes. Then black flames erupted from where he had come from and suddenly the man believed him.

Part of Naruto had wanted to turn back and fight but, the weight on his back reminded him of his responsibilities. Arriving at the hospital he had to explain again about the battle and that had been like kicking over an anthill. Everyone had started scrambling preparing for the incoming wounded. Konohamaru had only been given a cursory inspection declared stable and shoved in a bed on the second floor. Since nobody had told him he had to leave Naruto had stayed with him.

When Konohamaru started to stir the Genin was startled for a second wondering if he should get someone but, then the boy's dark eyes were fixed on him and he smiled nervously under the intense scrutiny. "Hey, how's it going," Naruto said nervously.

The boy's tongue licked his dry lips and then asked hesitantly, "Are you real?"

The blonde didn't know how to answer that, having never doubted his own existence before. "Yeah," he ventured hesitantly causing Konohamaru to break into tears. Naruto stood startled and glanced around the room looking for help that wasn't there, "Does something hurt?"

His friend wiped his eyes with his forearm shaking his head, "I'm sorry."

Naruto was now completely confused, "Why are you apologizing?"

"Because if I wasn't there you would have kicked those two creepy guys butts."

Taking a seat on the bed he grabbed his friends little shoulders forcing him to meet his eyes. "Hey, it's okay. I'm okay."

Konohamaru looked up at him hesitantly. "You're not angry?"

"No," Naruto answered.

The kid sniffed one more time and then dabbed at his eyes with the loose sheet. When he looked up again the only evidence of his crying was his slightly reddened eyes. "What happened then?"

The Genin rubbed the back of his blonde head nervously, "Well I'm not really sure. You see my sensei sort of showed up and told me to get you out of there and well there might have been someone else with him but, I'm not sure. I told the first ninja I ran into about the intruders and he raised the alarm. There were some explosions earlier but, it's quiet now."

At that moment the door opened and Naruto looked up thinking it would be a medic or something but, froze when he saw it was Asuma. His insides threatened to become his outsides as the man approached. A voice in his head pointed out that if he had left Konohamaru alone like he had been ordered to he wouldn't be in the hospital right now. Even though that was true he made a mental note to kick that voice's ass.

Jiraiya closely followed him in and although the blonde was slightly relieved to have the perverted hermit in the room it looked like the women had finally found him peeping. His clothes were torn. He had a small bandage over his right eye and his left arm was wrapped heavily. Despite his appearance he smiled when their eyes met, "I got one of the bastards." His eyes widen as he saw Konohamaru and corrected, "I mean I eliminated one of the bad guys."

Asuma glance over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow at the correction as Naruto blurted out, "Which one?"

The two of them came to a stop in front of the bed before the old pervert answered. "The big blue guy, his name was Kisame Hoshigaki formally of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.."

Naruto had not recognized the name of the person but, the group had been the sane that Zabuza had belong to which meant that he couldn't have been a push over. He felt a sudden wave of relief that he had made the right decision to get Konohamaru out of their before the battle had started. Then he remembered where he was sitting and he moved back to the chair suddenly nervous.

"Why were they after Naruto," Konohamaru asked out of the blue.

The two men shared a glance that almost went unnoticed by the blonde and then Asuma answered. "Konohamaru I'm glad to see you're okay and it's convenient you're here together. The details of this incident have been classified as an S-class secret. That means neither of you too can discuss this incident even with your friends. You have to treat it like you weren't even there. Can you handle that Konohamaru?"

The boy nodded solemnly and then added, "But why were they after Naruto?"

Jiraiya chuckled. "Kid it will be easier if you don't know. That way you don't have to think about not saying anything. Trust me when you're a ninja that will happen to you a lot." The older man turned his attention on to Naruto, "You are a very lucky boy. If Kakashi and I didn't go looking for you we wouldn't be having this conversation." Naruto nodded noticing the unusually serious tone. "You're sensei was going to give you permission to go with me on the little trip I told you about."

"Was going to," Naruto echoed. That didn't sound right. It sounded like something had happened to his sensei.

Asuma delivered the news. "Kakashi along with several others are currently under a very heavy Genjutsu. It's different than the one my nephew was under and it's unlikely that they will be coming out of it anytime soon. Jiraiya is going to get the one person that might be able to help."

"So, are you up for coming along with me Naruto?"

The blond nodded without thinking this time concerned for his sensei, "When are we going to go?"

"As soon as you're packed," the old pervert answered.

Naruto turn to Konohamaru who was looking at him sadly. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

The boy forced a smile that was obvious to everyone but Naruto and said, "I'll be waiting."

Before the blonde could escape the room and its serious atmosphere he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Let me walk you out. I need to grab a cigarette. The receptionist threw a fit the last time I tried to light up in the building."

The orange clad Genin felt his blood turn to ice as the man placed a hand on his shoulder and walked with him to the door. He knew he was in for it. Even ignoring the fact that he had ignored the man's order to stay away from his nephew he had still put him in danger. If only he

"Don't do that."

Naruto glanced nervously up at the Jonin noticing they were the only people in the hallway, "What?"

The man gave a long exhale before continuing, "You're thinking if only." The man glanced over at him receiving a nod. "You shouldn't think like that. Learn from your mistakes but, don't dwell on them. If you do, you might freeze up the next time you have to make one."

Naruto nodded again although he wasn't sure if he understood. After another minute of silence Naruto ventured a question, "Are you angry?"

The older man shrugged, "Not quite sure. I only learned about Konohamaru's hospitalization a few minutes ago." They walked down the hall in silence before the Jonin continued, "I haven't been the best guardian to him so far. It's been hectic and well about the conversation we had yesterday, it didn't happen."

"Really," the blonde questioned.

Asuma stopped and since he was still holding onto the teen shoulder so did he. "Listen if you ever hurt him I will skin you alive but, I don't think you're a bad kid"

The threat actually made Naruto smile since he couldn't imagine hurting his friend and he responded with, "The same goes for you."

* * *

Author's note: Another chapter with no nasty. I filled out the profile if anyone's interested though it's not a thorough job. R&R


	11. A Different Type of Trouble

Naruto collapsed onto his back and stared up at the star filled sky. He tried not to think about how his arms and hands hurt. It was the eighth or tenth day of trying to pop the rubber ball and he didn't feel he was any closer to popping the thing than he had been on the first day. He wished a cat could help him at this stage like it had with the water balloon. Of course if Jiraiya could take some time out of his busy schedule of drinking and flirting to help him in the first place he wouldn't have needed help from a feline.

He knew he wasn't being fair but the old pervert had spent all of his hard earned cash on women and booze. Just the thought of poor Gama-chan being flat after all those months of carefully feeding him was almost too much. He had been so fat and happy until the old pervert had gotten his hands on him. Of course, now that he remembered that scene he couldn't help but think about those two women who had been hanging off of the Pervy Sage.

His face warmed as he remembered that one of those women hadn't been wearing anything under her dress. It had only been a glance and he really couldn't make anything out but, the mystery of the dark unknown made blood flow to a certain part of his male anatomy. The last time it had received any attention was from between Konohamaru's feet. It wasn't that the blond had embarked on a campaign of abstaining or anything but, he had either been training or sleeping next to the old man.

Still, even after days he was not in the mood right now. Unfortunately, ignoring the tent in his pants proved to be impossible. After a minute he reached down and despite protesting his fingers slid under his waistband. However, with the lack of attention little Naruto had been receiving lately he would not go quietly into his pants. He had been producing pre-cum lately and ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem but it was leaking a lot right now.

The blonde tried to think about chakra and popping the ball, but such an abstract thought was difficult for him to follow with a wet spot pushing up against his belly. The more Naruto tried not to think about it the harder it was to ignore. Giving in to the inevitable, he decided to deal with it the old-fashioned way before realizing a problem, he was simply too sore. It hurt to move anything below his elbows. He suddenly wished he had his little friend here to help him with his problem.

Then Naruto had an idea that was either born from his genius or desperation. He wasn't as happy to know that the Shadow Clone Jutsu required such a simple hand sign since he had first learned how to do it. Sitting up it took him a minute to force his fingers into the right positions. Then a second later a clone of himself stood before him. It was at that moment he realized how strange the situation was. Would he be receiving a blowjob or was this masturbating?

The doppelganger helped him to his feet and they retreated further in the woods wordlessly. When the original Naruto thought they had gone far enough he was lead against a tree by the clone that then dropped to his knees in front of him. With hands undamaged from days of manipulating chakra his pants were pulled down to his ankle followed by his boxers.

The clone grabbed his rod before licking the glistening tip clean. Naruto smiled and closed his eyes as he leaned against the tree. When his bare butt pressed against the bark of the tree he jumped forward, bucking and almost poking his clone in the eye.

"Hey, watch it," his clone protested.

"Um, sorry," the original said. He knew his clones could talk, but they normally didn't.

His doppelganger admitted a dismissive sound and went back to work inhaling half of his member. The clone ran his tongue up and down his inhaled length, coating it with saliva. It was warm and pleasant but definitely different from the way Konohamaru did it. Unexpectedly, he felt one of the clone's hands start to rub the rest of his still exposed erection as the other hand started to climb up his inner thigh before grabbing and then fondling his balls.

The original groaned at the administrations of his double, enjoying every second but unfortunately, he didn't last for many of them. It had been so long and when he did ejaculate he only had enough time to say, "I'm" before he was shooting into his partners mouth.

He collapsed against the tree and had to struggle to remember how to stand. It had been one of those rare mind blowing orgasms that seemed to go on for minutes. It was almost like his body was pulsating with pleasure. He kept his eyes closed as the sensation slowly faded. Inhaling one last deep breath he opened his eyes and yelped in surprise. The clone was still there.

He was just about to dismiss him, but he spoke up, "Hey, it's your turn." The clone said gesturing towards his pants, which had pitched its own tent.

"What," the blonde said startled, "you're just a clone."

"I'm a Shadow Clone and you want to do this."

"Why would I want to do a clone," Naruto objected not realizing he was technically arguing with himself.

The clone rolled its eyes, "Because you want to know what Konohamaru feels."

Even as the blonde opened his mouth to object he realized it was true. He was curious and there was a part of him that wondered if Konohamaru could actually enjoy sucking on his thing. Naruto still wasn't sure how he felt about sucking on his friends and Konohamaru was still dry as a bone when he climaxed. How did it feel to get a bunch of stuff in your mouth? Really it hadn't been that long ago that the whole idea of it just seemed too sick to even try. "Drop your pants," he said reluctantly.

His clone didn't need to be told twice and a second later Naruto realized that a Shadow Clone was truly a duplicate of the original. Even their boxers were the same. Carefully dropping to his knees he examined his member from a completely new view. His doppelganger erection stuck out at a ninety degree angle and the pre-cum was catching the moonlight, making it impossible to miss.

Hesitantly he leaned forward and stuck his tongue out to lick the tip like his clone had done to him earlier. Naruto had expected there to be a taste to the clear liquid, but there was nothing. Maybe there wasn't enough of it or maybe there was just no taste to it. Unable to use his hands he placed his tongue on top of the shaft and leaned forward guiding it in. Ordinarily he had no problem taking the entire length of Konohamaru but Naruto's own was longer which caused him to sort of gag when he took too much in. Knowing his limit he started to move back and forth.

Naruto remembered that Konohamaru had said he didn't mind his smell, so he tried to inhale. All he smelled was his own sweat but, there was something more to it, something which wasn't wholly unpleasant or pleasant. Continuing his ministrations he thought he noticed more pre-cum sliding out of the thing in his mouth but he couldn't be sure, it could've just been spit. After a few minutes his clone moaned, "I'm coming."

Seconds later his mouth was filled with a warm liquid. It shot onto his tongue and slammed against the roof of his mouth. He pulled off quickly causing some of the stuff to land on his chin. Twisting his head around Naruto wiped the white liquid onto his jacket. Most of the stuff was still in his mouth and he resisted the immediate urge to spit it out. It tasted strange, like the skin that sometimes formed on top of ramen, but mostly it was just there. Spitting it onto the ground he noticed that the taste stuck with him.

A second later the clone disappeared and so did the taste, Naruto was left alone in the woods. With effort he was able to pull up his pants and after that was done he tried to figure out what he had learned. It hadn't been bad and for some reason he suspected it would get better with practice, but he did decide on one thing; he was going to make sure that Konohamaru understood that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to. With that decided the blonde decided to head in for the night.

* * *

Naruto walked a little behind Jiraiya, bored with the traveling. In an attempt to relieve his boredom he tried to start a conversation, "Hey Pervy Sage, this Tsunade used to be on your team when you were my age, Right?"

The older man turned his head slightly to watch him from the corner of his eye, "Yeah, why are you asking?"

"Well, did the third member of your team become famous too?" Naruto almost collided with the man as he stopped suddenly. He frowned up at him curious.

The Sannin opened his mouth but seemed to change his mind. Running his fingers through his hair he said, "You could say that, although he's more infamous than famous."

"Infamous," The Genin echoed not recognizing the word.

The older man looked away into the distance. "He was Orochimaru."

Naruto would've been less surprised if the Sannin had just told him that the next Hokage was going to be a dog. "What! He is the guy who attacked the village, he killed the Third. He's evil, how could he be on your team?"

Jiraiya laughed, it didn't sound right to Naruto's ears. "You think he was always like that? Orochimaru was a kid like everybody else," the man said as he started walking again.

The Genin tried to picture his companion as a child, but kept coming up with strange images even worse than when he had imagined Kakashi without his mask. Then he suddenly realized that he had been left behind and ran to catch up to the old pervert. "What was he like?"

The man didn't respond at first, after a minute he looked down at him and said, "Quiet, he kept to himself but, after awhile he warmed up to us. It was strange, but he was easy to talk to." He trailed off and Naruto thought he was finished until he spoke again. "I was with him when he learned that his parents had died. The old man told him and he didn't really react like I thought he would. Orochimaru just stood there for a minute and then walked away."

He laughed, "I went after him after a little. Found him leaning against a training post in the middle of an empty field. I'm sure he was crying and I didn't do anything. I wasn't a good friend to him," Jiraiya shook his head and looked down at Naruto as if he just remembered he was there only to looked away immediately.

For his part, Naruto didn't know what to make of what he had just been told. He divided the world into good and bad where good people were always good and bad people were always bad. Part of him knew the world didn't work that way. Haku hadn't been a bad person and Zabuza had even been pretty decent in the end.

Jiraiya suddenly raised a hand and they both came to a halt. He squinted into the distance and Naruto followed suit wondering if there was an enemy approaching but could barely make out a caravan approaching them from the opposite direction. Without saying a word or breaking his gaze the Sannin pulled out a collapsible telescope. Naruto waited impatiently for some sort of orders.

"Look at the knockers on her. Man they deserve an entire chapter to themselves.

"Pervert," Naruto spat. The orange clad Genin stomped down the road forgetting about the conversation and subconsciously grateful for it.

* * *

Ten days later Naruto was walking down the same road again but in the opposite direction. The pair had swelled in size to include two females and a pig. The blonde had been unsure about the older of the two at first. Her bad mouthing of the Third and the others who had held the title he so coveted had angered him. Even though he had tried to stay calm he had lost it and yelled at her. Still, after he had won their bet, he kind of liked her now. The necklace he had won off of the woman still felt pleasant against his chest.

Shizune on the other hand had almost gone unnoticed by him at first. However, since they had been traveling together she had been pretty nice to him which made her okay in his book. Ton-Ton hadn't given him any trouble and he hadn't given the pig any trouble. Occasionally, the Genin did wonder about Ton-Tons gender, but so far he hasn't been bored enough to check.

It was in the late afternoon when they entered a small village. Naruto was in the lead and barely heard the short conversation behind him. "Lady Tsunade."

"I know I saw it," Tsunade said cutting her off.

The blonde turned to face the three adults, "What are you two talking about?"

"Hey, this town has a hot spring and it's cold," Jiraiya said almost skipping over to the Inn his tone pitching upward for the last two words.

Naruto ran in front of him waving his arms. "What do you think you're doing? There is another two or three hours of daylight before we have to stop. You can't just delay us so that you can perv at some girls."

The older man leaned down and put his hands on the young teen's shoulders and then said as if he was imparting wisdom passed down from great sages. "Naruto, sometimes you have to stop and admire the flowers," with that he skipped around Naruto and into the building.

The young Genin turned to face the two women hoping that the next Hokage would do something but to his astonishment she just shrugged and followed him in. Shizune the last hope for any reason forced a smile and shrugged as if to say what can you do. He grabbed his hair and yelled in frustration, "Am I the only responsible one here."

An hour later Naruto was silently grateful that they had stopped. Jiraiya had rented the largest room in the place, which was actually three rooms. It had a main room with two smaller bedrooms on either side. The room was nice but it was nothing compared to the banquet that had been served to them. The blonde couldn't remember the last time he had seen so much food in one place before. There had even been ramen. It was almost enough to make up for what Jiraiya did to poor Gama-chan, but not quite.

The Toad sage leaned forward over his engorged stomach and placed his elbows on the table. "You know Tsunade we really should make use of the hot springs while we're here. Maybe just the two of us could."

The older woman almost spat out her reply, "I can't believe you're still as big of a pervert as when you were a kid."

"Hey," the older man interrupted sounding indignant, "I'll have you know I'm a much bigger pervert now."

The elderly but young looking woman slammed her hand down onto the table, "If you think we are going to be using the hot spring at the same time as you then you're an even bigger fool I thought you were. You and Naruto can go first, so hop to it."

Naruto who had been stuffing his face perked up when he had heard his name. Looking down at his stomach he said, "I think I'm too full."

The soon-to-be Hokage waved a hand dismissively, "You'll be fine and besides he needs somebody to keep an eye on him," she gestured towards Jiraiya.

"That's cruel," the older man said it with a laugh and then slapped the younger male on the shoulder, "why don't you go on ahead. I'll be there as soon as I finish this," he gestured towards the sake bottle.

Having no parents Naruto wasn't as familiar with the adult brush-off, not that he didn't get the not-so-subtle hint. Grumbling to himself he left the table heading for the hot springs. It wasn't like there was anything else he could do at this Inn anyways. In the changing room, which was separated by male and female, he suddenly thought about Konohamaru. He wondered if his little friend ever had been to a hot spring or bathhouse for that matter.

Well, he had taken him to one but that was purely to see if he could pass as a woman in his Sexy Technique. After he thought about it for a little he decided he probably hadn't. The Sarutobi residence had been huge and probably had more than one bathroom to bathe in. Of course they had showered together and Konohamaru hadn't thought it was weird, so maybe he had been to a bathhouse or a hot spring before. Of course if you had sucked a guy off while bathing with him it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

Wrapping a towel around himself he jumped straight into the water, which was about chest deep. The warm water felt good against his skin and he bobbed up and down for a minute. His thoughts turned back to Konohamaru, this mission caused them to be separated the longest since they started doing stuff together. He missed him and not just because of the stuff they did in his bed. He wanted to see the entire trio again and his team.

After a few minutes of floating around he was already bored. When he heard the sound of the door sliding he look up expecting to see Jiraiya walking in but the person stepped out of the ladies side and he averted his eyes wondering if he should warn her of the imminent arrival of the super pervert.

"How's the water Naruto?"

Naruto spun around and recognized the woman as Shizune. In the back of his mind there was a part of his brain that thought this wasn't right. A few months ago he would've ignored it but recently he had been paying more attention to it. Breaking down the tree walking exercise had started as one of these small thoughts. Pushing it aside, but not far, he said, "It's fine."

She slipped into the water and worked her way to the side where there were seats. "This is nice, isn't it? I'm glad we stopped here."

Naruto grunted in a noncommittal answer then he asked, "Where's Jiraiya?"

"He'll be here in a few minutes."

If epiphanies were accompanied with sound effects they would've been an audible click as Naruto put a bunch of things together. The strange and short conversation the two women had. Jiraiya's sudden decision to stay here in this town instead of the next and finally Shizune going into a hot spring where she knew a super pervert would be coming. "What's going on," his tone was serious and quiet, almost alien to his own ears.

"What are you talking about?"

"Something's going on, what is it?

"There is nothing going on Naruto," Shizune sounded convincing to him.

Still, Naruto thought there wasn't something right and he turned around to climb out of the hot water. "I'm going to have another bowl of ramen," he said to cover his sudden withdraw. Changing quickly he went back to the dining room only to find none of his traveling companions. Snatching a glass off a table he headed upstairs to the room they had rented.

Reaching the top of the stairs he tried to be sneaky but the floor creaked under his feet. Remembering a lesson from the Academy he went to the side of the hallway where the floor was less likely to grown. A few doors down from the room he laid on the floor and crawled the last few feet. Carefully placing the glass against the door he put his ear against the bottom of it. The trick wasn't perfect but he could hear at least part of the conversation.

"Probably but, still if it isn't."

"I know. I doubt it's him but it could be that group you were telling me about."

"They're not dumb. They wouldn't try anything with both of us near him. If you hadn't drugged me, we would've taken down Orochimaru and that sidekick of his and he was one of their stronger members."

"Would you get over it already, it's not like it's the first time I ever did that to you." She paused for a second and then added, "What should we do."

Naruto was wishing that he had arrived a few minutes earlier when the door suddenly slid open. Even though he sensed it immediately, he was hesitant to look up to see who had caught him sensing that it would be bad no matter who it was.

"Get in here," Tsunade said half amused half annoyed. Before he could do anything she grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him in sliding him across the floor and into the center of the room.

"So much for Shizune distracting him," Jiraiya commented wryly.

"Is somebody going to tell me what is going on," Naruto demanded trying to hide his embarrassment of being caught.

"Well we really don't have a choice, do we?" The older man didn't sound particularly annoyed as he gestured for the teen to come closer. Naruto did so and he began filling him in, "You know that a ninja can be sent on long term deep cover assignments," he waited for the blonde to acknowledge the question, "good. Well what they didn't tell you at the Academy is that sometimes when they get into trouble they can leave signs for help."

"Like what?"

"It can be anything," Tsunade took over the explanation. "Graffiti on a building, a certain wording on a sign or in this case some cuts on a tree. If you were a Jonin you would be expected to know all of them."

"So, somebody needs our help," Naruto questioned.

"It's not that simple," the white-haired man took over the explanation again. "This particular signal is an old one but the cuts on the tree were fresh. We passed through this town on our way to collect Tsunade and it is possible that this agent noticed me and thus used an older sign thinking I might not know the newer ones."

"Or it could be a trap," Tsunade interjected."

"Right, that's what we were discussing when we heard you coming down the hallway. You really do have to work on your stealth."

The blond ignored the comment, "What are we going to do?"

"We are going to do nothing. Jiraiya and I will meet with the agent or the ambush."

"But, I can help," Naruto stood up. "I could create some clones and have them Transform into you two. They could go to the meeting and then report back, or."

Jiraiya raised his hand to cut him off, "It's not that simple."

"That's not a bad idea," Tsunade interrupted her old teammate. "We'll take you along, but you have to do as we say. Now I'm going to enjoy the hot spring until we have to leave." She turned around and before she stepped out the door she turned around. "You," she pointed towards the older male, "stay in this room and don't set foot outside," she pointed towards Naruto, "watch him until I get back or I will make sure that you get nothing but D- rank missions for the rest of your career."

"What if I have to use the bathroom," the older man protested.

"There's a plant in the corner," she called over her shoulder.

Naruto was pretty sure she wouldn't carry out her threat but just in case he guarded the door like she would. Time passed slowly in the room even though it was partially filled with a lecture by Jiraiya on how to read the sign that had started this detour. When the two women returned the next Hokage was carrying a bottle of sake.

"Kid, come here," she said pulling out a small saucer like cup and laid it on the table. "This is a tradition before going on a dangerous mission. Before you depart you have a drink from a freshly opened bottle of sake. Then when you get back everybody finishes the bottle off." She cut his protest off before they could start as she filled the cup, "If you're old enough to go on this mission you're old enough to drink a mouthful. Now come on."

The blonde looked down at the little cup on the table before taking it in his hand. He had never really been curious about the taste of sake or alcohol in general but he supposed it couldn't hurt. Not knowing what it would taste like and not wanting to look like a fool if he gagged he opened his mouth and poured it into the back of his mouth.

To Naruto surprised it didn't seem to have a taste and in fact it felt a lot like water. Then his vision blurred, was he drunk? Before the Jinchuuriki realized how impossible that was he fell and was caught by someone. They laid him gently down onto the floor and then Tsunade was leaning over him.

After a minute she said as if from a great distance, "he's fine. He should be out in a minute." Even though Naruto could hear the words he couldn't make any sense of them. Then blackness encroached on his vision and he thought nothing more as he fell into a deep sleep.


	12. New Problems

The first time Naruto awoke, it only lasted for a few seconds and all he could feel was a soft futon that somebody must have laid him on. Unfortunately, he was unable to open his eyes and fell back asleep almost immediately. The next time he was more successful. Forcing his eyes open he tried to take in his surroundings, but he couldn't focus. The whole world was just blurry. Somebody leaned over him, but in the dark it was impossible to tell who it was.

"Naruto you're okay. The Sake that you drank was actually water laced with a sleeping drug. Don't try to fight it and you should be fine by morning."

Even through his haze shrouded mind he recognized the voice of Shizune. He wanted to ask about the meeting and if they had gone yet. When he opened his mouth though, it felt like it was stuffed full of cotton balls. Giving into his body's demands he asked, "Water."

"Here drink this." Naruto felt a straw pressed against his lips and he tried to sit up, but his body disagreed with his decision. Instead he just sipped at the offered water. Satisfying his thirst he pushed the straw away with his tongue, "The meeting?" The drugged Genin wanted to go back to sleep, but fought against the temptation.

"They left already. Don't worry about it." Shizune placed a hand on his forehead and while it may have been the drugs he found it rather soothing. "Please don't hate Lady Tsunade for this. You're a lot like Nawaki, her brother. He died going on a mission he wasn't ready for and I think the similarities were too great for her."

The blonde wanted to protest that he was not Nawaki. He was Naruto the future Hokage , but either the drug was pulling him back to sleep or it might have been the soft stroking of his hair. His last thought was a strange one. He briefly wondered if this was what it felt like to have a mother. Then he fell asleep again.

In the morning Naruto woke up for the third time tired ,but able to move. He was alone in the room and he threw the covers off of himself before climbing to his feet. It was then he was grateful that he was alone as he had a morning problem. Hearing voices from the other room he tucked his little problem under his waistband knowing only the bathroom could relieve it.

Some of the drug still must be pumping through his body because he was tired which was unusual for him. Then he remembered how he had been tricked and anger washed over him. Sliding the shoji screen open he scanned the room until he found the target of his anger, "You drugged me!"

Tsunade hardly glanced over at him from where she sat at the table, "Yes, yes I did."

Naruto couldn't believe her dismissive tone. She didn't even sound sorry. Words came out of his mouth, but as he tried to say several things at once it all came out as gibberish. Jiraiya's hand landed on his shoulder cutting off his incoherent rant. "Welcome to the I have been drugged by Tsunade club. I'm a three-time member."

Oddly the man's confession made him feel better. His opinion of the older man had gone from dirty old man to possibly as good as his boasting. Puffing out his cheeks Naruto tried to let his anger go ,but not before remembering why he had been drugged, "How did the meeting go?"

"You would have been bored," Jiraiya waved his hand dismissively. "The guy just needed to hand some stuff over and wanted a status report on the village."

The Genin deflated when he heard that. It had probably been too much to hope that this rendezvous would be of something of vital importance to the village. Looking back over at Tsunade he noticed something new. She was leaning against a small plane box, "What's that," Naruto asked pointing at the object.

"Documents," the older woman replied.

Naruto nodded not thinking anything of it. Then he remembered his other little problem and left to deal with it. Even though they had the best room in the Inn there was still no bathroom and he had to go into the hallway to use the communal one. As he sat there relieving his bladder he had a strange thought. It was a big box for documents. How many documents would it take to fill such a thing?

The more he thought about it the stranger it seemed. Why wouldn't the agent just seal all the documents into one scroll? If that Tenten girl could do it with weapons a ninja should be able to do it with paper. The more he thought about it the more he thought that they were hiding something from him again and that was not cool.

The young Genin's mind went into scheming mode as he became determined to look into that box. After all it could be anything. By the time he finished his business he had hatched a plan. He summoned a clone and walked with it back to the room. The original Naruto stayed outside of the room while his doppelganger went in and announced that it was going to go lay down again. However, it closed the door to the room improperly leaving a sliver the original could peer through.

From his position at the door the blonde could see the older woman and waited for her to take her elbow off the box. Unfortunately, that didn't immediately happen and he had to wait. Hearing someone coming up the stairs, Naruto tried to look innocent calling upon all his years of trying to get away with pranks.

It was Shizune who came up the stairs carrying four bento in her hand stacked one on top of the other. She paused when she saw him and said loud enough to be heard in the room, "Naruto, I hope you're feeling well."

Naruto was not the sharpest kunai in the pouch at the best of times and the lingering effects of the drugs had certainly not added any IQ points, but he did realize that it was now or never. Without responding to the kind woman he flung the door open and jumped into the room. He tried to knock the box away from its guardian, but it was a lot heavier than he thought it was and all he did was end up knocking it over. The top fell off and something rolled out of it.

There was an eerie moment of silence and then Naruto scrambled backwards until he slammed into a wall. The object was a black-and-white head and if that wasn't strange enough the severed head was gagged. Between the rolling around and some effort on its own the gag was loosened and it shouted from the top of its lungs which were clearly not attached to it, "Jashin, strike these infidels down."

Those words seem to set everyone in motion. Tsunade grabbed the head by its hair and shoved the gag back into its mouth before sticking it back into the box. Shizune rushed into the room to see what the commotion was and Jiraiya was at his side before he could finish saying, "Why is there a head in that box!" Tsunade leveled a glare at him, if it could kill it would have reduced him to ashes and thirty people standing behind him.

"Calm down," Jiraiya said stepping in front of him.

"Calm down?" That head just talked." Naruto would admit that anatomy class had not been his best subject, but decapitation was supposed to be fatal.

"No listen, it's a jutsu."

That magic word calmed the blonde's mind and he looked at the older man for an explanation. That man is using a jutsu that allows him to survive anything, even decapitation. He's a member of Akatsuki. Like the two that came after you in the village. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded as the strangeness of the situation passed. A talking decapitated head, he could handle this. "How did you um**," **what was the right word, "capture him?"

Jiraiya hesitated, but then held out his hand to help him up, "It will be easier to show you. Come on."

Naruto took the offered hand and followed him out of the room past an annoyed Tsunade and a concerned Shizune. By the time they left the Inn Naruto was starting to wonder if the man was going to tell him anything. Sometimes Iruka would do that when he didn't want to answer a question. He would just ignore it until Naruto or occasionally someone else forgot about it. "Are you going to tell me or not?"

"Yeah, I just want to show you something." They walked to where they had entered the village the previous day and the older man paused and pointed at a tree. "You see those cuts in the bark over there? That was what the three of us noticed yesterday."

The blonde squinted seeing the cuts, "You all saw that, how?"

"Your eyes notice everything, but your brain filters a lot of it out. It's a lot like when one of your Shadow Clones is destroyed. You don't remember every single detail, but you remember the important ones."

"What are you talking about," Naruto asked confused. He didn't learn anything from his Shadow Clones.

The older man eyed him like he just said something incredibly stupid. "You're telling me you haven't noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

"The Shadow Clone Technique was originally developed for scouting. So, once a clone is dismissed you can access what it learned."

"How," the blonde asked wondering why no one had told him before.

"Ask your sensei when we get back. We're getting off topic here. Anyway we notice this marking and even though it was an old one the cuts were new. That meant it was probably a trap, but we weren't sure."

"Okay, but how does this lead to a head in a box," Naruto asked remembering his original question.

"I'm getting there, now shut up," his perverted sensei words lacked any anger. "This particular symbol hasn't been used in over a decade, but when they're training new recruits to recognize these things they use an older symbol which is no longer in use. That is why we chose to meet the man, although we weren't expecting him to be Itachi."

Naruto's reaction to the news made his reaction to the severed head seem restrained in volume at least. His shout of surprise sent birds a half a mile away into the air.

Jiraiya stuck a finger in his ear in an exaggerated gesture, "I forget how loud kids can be."

"What are you talking about, he's one of them. He is evil."

"I know what he did," the sage interrupted. "Akatsuki has its members work in pairs. Apparently when I killed his partner the group started to have second thoughts about him. If an enemy can capture the head of a ninja they can learn a lot and even though I destroyed his partner's entire body Akatsuki still thought that he double-crossed them and was trying to give us information via his partner's corpse."

"He claims the leader sent a team to kill him, but he was able to defeat both of them. One of them was that talking head you saw. He gave us some information about bank accounts and some other things about the group. Then he left."

"You let him go? Why didn't you capture him or something," Naruto demanded.

"To what point? If the group has turned on him and judging by his injuries, we now share a mutual enemy. With a little luck he might take out a few more of them before they kill him."

As the Genin opened his mouth he paused and thought for a minute, it was something he was trying to do more often. It was logical he supposed. Although for some reason he didn't think that Sasuke would be happy to hear this. The blonde wondered if he could tell his raven haired friend about the news.

Jiraiya placed a hand on his shoulder pulling him out of his thoughts. "Come on, let's head back to the Inn and get ready to go. That head has a shelf life on it and I want to give it to Ibiki while it can still talk."

Naruto shuttered, but he wasn't sure if it was just from the thought of a former examiner or the idea of him interrogating just a head. Then he realized what the man had said, "We're still a few days from Konoha."

"Not by toad," the older man replied.

* * *

Of all the ways the citizens of Konoha had imagined their next Hokage would arrive, by giant toad had not been one of them. Naruto didn't know what this particular toad's name was, but it was smaller than Gamabunta and yet was capable of leaping a mile at a time. The ride had been bumpy and fun. It was almost disappointing when they stopped a half-mile from their destination and dismounted to walk the rest of the way.

Still, their approach had been noticed and by the time they reached the gates a crowd was there to greet them. This seemed to tick off Tsunade as much as it made Naruto nervous. He liked being the center of attention, but this wasn't for him. Quietly he slipped away from the three adults and pig without being noticed.

It did feel good being home again and his first thought was to head to Ichiraku for some of their excellent ramen, but then he remembered Gama-Chan was still flat. After thinking some very angry thoughts about a certain old man, he headed for his own apartment trying to remember if he had replenished his emergency cash supply since the last time he had dove into it. Reaching his door he shoved his hand into his pocket searching for the key when he had a sudden horrifying thought.

When he had traveled to Wave country he had asked Iruka to water his plants while he was gone. This time he had left in such a hurry that he had told no one. Opening the door he was fully prepared to see his plants shriveled up, but to his surprise the first one he saw appeared healthy as did the rest of them. Maybe his old sensei had heard of his departure and had watered his plants for him. He had to abandon that theory when he walked into his kitchen and found a note attached to his refrigerator.

I watered your plants and threw out your milk when it went bad, sorry. We need to talk Sakura.

The blonde reread the message once, twice and then a third time before he grabbed it off the fridge and bolted out of his apartment. He was halfway down his apartment stairs when he realized that he didn't know where he could find her. Well, he could try her home first and if she wasn't there he didn't know what he would do, but no reason to worry about that now.

Racing to his female teammate's house he paused as it came into view. Last time he had popped up to her window he had almost seen something that would've gotten him killed, but knocking on the door and possibly running into one of her parents wasn't appealing either. In the end he compromised and jumped up, but to the side of her window and tapped on the glass.

A moment later he heard the window slide open and a familiar voice say, "Naruto your back."

It might have just been the blonde's deluded imagination, but she almost sounded relieved to see him. "Hi, I got your message."

"Why aren't you looking at me," she said interrupting him.

"Oh sorry, I didn't want you to think I was trying to peep on you," again he added quietly to himself turning to face her, "what do you need to talk about?"

Her smile faltered, "It will be easier to show you. I'll be down in a minute."

She closed the window before he could ask any other questions and as he dropped to the street he wondered what would have her so concerned. True to her word she emerged from her front door and darted past him saying, "Come on. We're going to the training field."

Trotting after her he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure really, but I'm concerned." She didn't seem inclined to elaborate and a heart beat later changed the subject, "why didn't you tell anyone you were leaving?"

Naruto put his hands behind his head, "It all happened kind of fast."

"Yeah, no kidding, nobody bothered telling us. Sasuke and I showed up for the team meeting and when you didn't show up we started to get worried. We had heard about the incursion and that there were some injuries. After Kakashi was late, even for him, we decided to check the hospital. He was there, but you weren't. Nobody knew where you were and I ended up asking that little kid you hang out with and he said you had gone on a mission."

"Is that all he said," the blonde questioned.

"Pretty much," his pink haired teammate turned her head to face him while keeping up her rapid pace, "You know, they do seem to look up to you."

Naruto smiled at that, "they're pests, but I like them."

Sakura seemed like she was about to say something more, but there was a loud crack of wood and she hurried up over a small hill. Naruto followed close on her heels and took in the sight as he crested the hill. Sasuke was alone in the training field and he was currently trying to reduce a training post to splinters. From the looks of it he had already reduced one to that state and there was a third one waiting to be abused.

"He's been like this for weeks."

"Why," Naruto questioned frowning at his third teammate. There was something wrong with Sasuke's strikes. They were technically perfect or as close as Naruto could tell, but there was anger in them. It was like he was throwing a temper tantrum. He had done that, of course, but to keep it up for weeks, that didn't seem right.

"There was a rumor that his brother was one of those that breached the village's perimeter and caused all that trouble the day you left. I'm not sure if you know or not, but they say his brother was the one that killed his clan when he was eight."

Itachi again, Naruto thought darkly. That guy just kept causing problems even when he wasn't around. He shuddered as he remembered the head the man had given to Jiraiya. "What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know," Sakura shoulders slumped in defeat. "I've seen his hands, he's hurting himself. He also is practicing a lot of jutsu and I think he is straining his chakra system." Naruto turned to face her and he could see tears in her eyes. "I don't know what to do. He won't listen to me and with Kakashi sensei hospitalized I don't know who to turn to." Her eyes stared directly into his, "Please do something."

Naruto had always wanted for Sakura to ask him to do something for her, well, besides leaving her alone. He had hoped she would ask him for help with something or better yet even a date, but now that one of his fantasies had finally come to fruition it felt like ash in his mouth. Staring down at his friend he did the only thing he could do. "Sure, I can talk to him." He started down the hill not having a clue of what to do.

* * *

Naruto had made no attempt to approach Sasuke stealthily, but his friend had either not noticed his approach or simply didn't care. With one particularly powerful blow a large portion of the back of the post splintered. "Cool," the blonde spoke unintentionally.

The raven haired Genin spun to face him surprised and for second Naruto almost thought he was going to attack him. His teammates seem to stop himself and said, "You're back. Our captains still hospitalized so we're not going on any missions."

As he turned around to resume hitting the post Naruto answered, "He should be better soon. Me and Jiraiya tracked down Tsunade. She's going to be the next Hokage and she's a great medic. She's even considered a-"

"Jiraiya and Tsunade, of the legendary Sannin," Sasuke interrupted him.

"Yeah, you've heard of them," Naruto responded slightly surprised.

His friend slowly turned around and stared at him in disbelief. "How the hell did you meet two of the strongest ninja in Konoha's history?"

Nervously, the blonde placed his hands behind his head and grinned, "Well Jiraiya taught me during that month-long break in the exam. Then he wanted to teach me a really cool jutsu so I went with him when he went searching for Tsunade." It wasn't the entire truth, but it was close enough.

The avenger stared at him so long that Naruto was becoming nervous and he shifted his weight from foot to foot. After a minute Sasuke spoke two words, "fight me."

He blinked in surprise and really looked at his friend. His face shined with sweat and his shirt was soaked clinging to his skin. This was probably how he appeared in his fan girls dirty dreams. Although, they probably didn't imagine his hands covered in blood. "You don't look too good. Maybe you should rest up. I wouldn't want you to say that I only beat you because you were tired," he added the last part to make it sound like it was coming from him and not Sakura. Now that he had gotten a good look at his friend he was starting to get to become concerned too.

"What? Are you afraid?"

Naruto didn't like being accused of being afraid, "No. I could wipe the floor with you."

"Big words, can you back them up?"

At that moment nothing would've made Naruto happier than to punch Sasuke right in the face, but he held back. "I'm not afraid," he paused trying to think of a reason not to fight now and then he remembered something from the earliest days of his training and jumped on it. "We're not supposed to spar unless Kakashi or someone of equal rank is there to observe."

The pale boy smirked, "Hiding behind rules? That's not like you at all are you that afraid?"

The blonde almost took a step forward and at that moment it would've been enough to start the fight. Yes, it would be a fight not a spar among teammates. The only thing that stopped him was the thought of a small boy. He needed to be a good role model for Konohamaru and pounding this jerk into the ground no matter how good it would feel would not set a good example. Clamping his mouth shut he turned around and walked away trying to ignore the jeers of the slightly taller boy.

"You couldn't put a single scratch on me. You're still the dead last."

It took all the willpower that Naruto had to not turn around and show him what he had learned. By the time he was halfway back to the hill Sasuke had resumed hitting the post. Sakura ran down the hill to meet him, "What happened," she asked concerned. Naruto ignored her and she ran in front of him, "Where are you going?"

The blond stopped and looked at her. At that moment he almost turned back to try and convince the boy to stop again, but his anger got the best of him. "I'm going to get Tsunade to heal Kakashi sensei and then we are both going to come back here and I will pound him into the ground like a stake." He stepped around her and even though he was furious he could hear her following him.

* * *

Authors note: I know I promised there would be a scene that would make this particular chapter M but, I just couldn't fit it in. Sorry but, when you see the next chapter you'll know why. I ask for your forgiveness.

On a lighter note I have a new poll. This one was inspired by a reviewer. However, to keep my profile nice and friendly I will have to modify the wording but, if you're reading this you will know what I mean. In chapter 11 when Naruto receives a blow job from a clone should this be considered sex or masturbation? S stands for sex and M stands for Masturbation. This is just for fun so I hope everyone votes.


	13. Good Ending to a Bad Day

By the time Naruto had reached the Hokage residence, he'd calmed down enough to abort his original plan of kicking in every door until he found Tsunade. This was doubly good because Sakura would have most likely have stopped him and it would have been an even worse example to set for Konohamaru then just pounding Sasuke into the ground. Instead, the two had sort of waited in ambush.

When he did finally see her again, the soon-to-be Hokage was surprisingly easy to convince to drop everything and head to the hospital. The two old people behind her seemed less thrilled by her decision. Within minutes they were in Kakashi's hospital room, which was a first for Naruto, but judging by the flowers, someone else had been visiting. Tsunade did some medical stuff, taking his pulse and lifting his one normal eye, which seemed totally baffling to the blonde. Then she placed her hands on his sensei's chest and his eye fluttered open.

His single eye roamed from Tsunade to his two students at the foot of his bed. "Some stuff has happened, hasn't it?"

Before Naruto could answer, the old woman responded. "You've been out for a little over a month. I am to be the next Hokage. Take it easy for a few days."

The man nodded and turned his full attention upon the remaining two as his eye curved upwards in a smile, "Don't tell me you haven't left my bedside all this time?"

Despite himself, the blonde smiled back, "Nope. I went with Jiraiya to look for her and just got back today." From the corner of his eye, he could see Sakura and how upset she still was. Now that he'd calmed down a little more, his anger towards his teammate faded away.

"Is there something wrong with Sasuke?" Kakashi asked sitting up.

The pink haired girl nodded, "He's been training constantly and he's not giving himself any time to rest."

"He tried to pick a fight with me." Naruto added reluctantly looking out the window.

Their sensei let out a loud sigh and swung his legs out of his bed. "I was afraid of that. Just hearing that his brother was so close probably brought all of his pain back." He slipped on his sandals that had been stored under his bed and then glanced over at his normally hyperactive student. "Naruto, I'm proud of you for not fighting Sasuke. You've matured a lot since I first met you."

Any residual desire to fight the barely pubescent jerk vanished with those words. His cheeks reddened, but it was more out of embarrassment than pride as he said "Are you going to talk to him?"

"Yep." Kakashi sounded confident as he stood to leave only to be pushed back down by Tsunade.

"Whoa there, I need to check a few things before I can allow you to walk out of here. In private." she added glancing over at the two Genin.

"Oh, of course." the kunoichi tugged on Naruto's arm as he wondered why her face was turning such a bright red color.

Before they reached the door, Kakashi called out, "Which training field is he at?"

"Four." Sakura responded without turning around.

Naruto had allowed himself to be pulled out of the room mostly because it was Sakura doing the pulling. However, as soon as the door was closed, she let go of his arm and just stood there. Silence always made the blonde uncomfortable and after a few seconds he said quietly, "I'm sorry."

Her beautiful green eyes met his, "Why?"

As much as he liked her eyes, he had to look away, "You asked for my help and I screwed up."

She was silent for a second, but eventually answered, "It's not your fault. I don't think you could have done anything. I just turned to you because I couldn't do anything. I'm useless."

"No you're not," Naruto object automatically.

She didn't turn to face him, but he could see that she smiled from the reflection in the window. "You two are always saving me."

"That's not true. What about during the exam and we were both out and you took care of us."

"Lee and his team and Ino and hers had to help me. I try, but it's like I'm standing still compared to you two. I want to change, but I'm not sure how."

The blonde was silent for a second, "I don't know what to do."

She finally turned to face him, "I know it is something I have to do. You know, I know there are three people that would be happy to see you back and the Academy should be leading out soon."

Naruto blinked at the sudden change of subject and suddenly realized which three people she was talking about, "Oh yeah. I wonder what they're up to." He paused for a second, not sure if he should stay or go.

Sakura ended his internal war with, "Go, I have to talk to sensei again."

* * *

Naruto thought that he should have really have looked at a clock. Waiting forty-five minutes outside the academy was not his idea of fun, but it wasn't like he could have done much else anyways. When he heard the students coming out, he was surprised at how excited he was at the prospect of seeing the trio again.

Kids started to pour out from the gates, some clearly happy to have the day over with and others just walking home. He was starting to wonder if they had been given detention when he saw Moegi walking backwards talking to someone. As the other two came into view he tried to look casual and cool, hoping they would notice him.

Konohamaru was the first to spot him, although how any potential ninja could miss his bright orange was a mystery. The kid's eyes lit up and he broke away from his friends. He ran over so fast that Naruto thought that he wouldn't be able to stop in time, but his young friend skidded to a stop, sending up to small dust clouds. The boy grinned up at him from ear to ear, "You're back."

Grinning down at him, Naruto answered, "Yeah and I'm free for the day."

By this time the other two had joined him and as he spoke those words they all turned to grin at each other. With no warning, Konohamaru and Moegi each grabbed one of his hands and started pulling him along. It was slightly embarrassing to be pulled along by two kids and he was pretty sure a few of the people they passed were laughing at him.

It didn't take them very long before they were on the outskirts of Konoha and when Naruto saw the fallen tree, he was able to put it together. He smiled to himself, well, it had been a month since they had last tried it and in their position he would want to get right back to it too. He was raising his hands to create a clone when Konohamaru said, "Just watch."

He jumped up on a log and his two friends grabbed his hands on either side just like he had done with his clone the first time. Udon and Moegi seemed to be really trying to pull Konohamaru off the log, but he stayed upright. When he reached the end of the log he jumped off and said proudly, "We all can do it, so what's the next step?"

Naruto suddenly felt a little uneasy. At first, he thought he had broken down the tree walking exercise into simple stages, but now he was having a crisis of confidence. He was concerned that they might fall from a height. One of the things that was stressed at the academy was how to take a fall and he was pretty sure they weren't at that stage yet. Still, he had promised and they had been working hard.

As he tried to stall by watching each one of them do it, a part of his mind realized that a few months ago he wouldn't be having these thoughts. Pushing that realization aside, he decided to go for it.

As he told them what to do for the next and final stage, he was almost feeling as excited as they were. Even though he was worried, this was kind of fun. They each took a tree and he created two clones to catch each of them when they fell. That, and the lack of kunai to mark the progress, was the only difference from how he learned it now.

He watched the three of them closer than an overprotective mother with a toddler in the park. Every time they fell he swore his heart would stop, but they did make progress. At first, it was only a few steps, but they were consistently getting better. Udon was the best surprisingly and although the other two didn't say anything, they definitely noticed and redoubled their efforts.

One time, when Moegi fell, her foot hit one of the clones pretty hard and it disappeared into a puff of smoke. Fortunately, the other clone did catch her and after making sure she was okay, Naruto thought about something Jiraiya had told him about his clones earlier that day. Curious, he tried to think about that clone and to his surprise he suddenly had memories.

They were pretty mundane. The only thing that the clone had really done was watch Moegi and catch her as she fell, but to put it simply, it was cool. He felt a grin spread across his face and then he started laughing so hard that the trio stopped to look at him. It took him a few seconds to recover and when he did, he suddenly didn't feel like just sitting back and watching. "Let's play ninja."

For the next hour, they ran through the woods, throwing cardboard shuriken at each other. It was fun and at times he would create clones to even up the teams. The blonde knew he'd probably be embarrassed if anyone had seen him, but they didn't and so he wasn't. When it was time for the other two to go home, he felt just like he had when he was a kid and a game ended too soon.

Konohamaru grinned up at him, his face red and streaked with sweat, "I'm glad you're back."

"Yeah, I kind of missed you guys too." They both sat heavily on the ground, and after a few seconds, Konohamaru leaned against him despite the fact they were both radiating heat.

After a moment, Konohamaru spoke, "Can I spend the night?"

Naruto paused for a second as his body reacted to the idea, but his mind still had enough blood to work. "I don't think your uncle will let you. You have to go to the Academy tomorrow anyways." he added the last part to deflect other questions.

The smaller boy pulled away from him and looked up, "But if he says its okay, can I?"

"Sure, if he says it's okay."

"Great," Konohamaru beamed before running off.

Naruto wondered why his friend wasn't just asking him to go back to his place now. Little Naruto was certainly willing. Then, he remembered that Konohamaru and his uncle were not really getting along with each other. Asuma and himself had sort of made peace, or at least he thought they had, but maybe the two of them still weren't getting along. He made a mental note to ask him about that next time he saw his friend.

Despite that melancholy thought, a smile tugged at his limbs, 'his friend' he had a lot of those now. It wasn't just the Konohamaru core, but his team and others. He wondered about his one teammate, but assumed everything would be okay. He would ask at the team meeting tomorrow and it was at that moment the blonde realized he didn't know where or if there would be a meeting. Pulling on his hair, he suddenly realized that he could just ask Sakura. She was on the way home and she might know a little more about Sasuke. He left the field with that thought and feeling significantly better than when he had started the day.

* * *

An hour later, Naruto was alone in his apartment. He was just about to give up on seeing Konohamaru that night when he heard his front door open. Smiling to himself, he put the kettle he had been filling aside and went to greet his friend. The boy was slipping off his footwear and they smiled at each other when their eyes met.

The youngest Sarutobi's hair was wet and he seemed a little down. Putting his backpack on the floor, he reached into his back pocket and produced a piece of paper, "My uncle wants to see you tomorrow after the ceremony for the new Hokage."

Naruto took the piece of paper, which basically said what he had just been told, and crumpled it when he was done. "You want some Ramen? I was just going to make some."

The boy nodded vigorously, "Yeah. I ate some stuff before I came over, but my uncle made it from scratch, he is not a good cook."

The blonde laughed, not remembering the last time he had made a meal that didn't come with instructions on the back. Going back to the kitchen, he added enough water for two and stepped back to wait for the tea kettle to whistle. Konohamaru came in and sat on top of the kitchen table, staring down at the floor, swinging his feet.

Naruto was pretty sure something was wrong with his friend and he wondered if it had anything to do with his uncle. Joining him on the table he synchronized swinging his legs with him before he asked, "So how's everything?"

The boy shrugged his small shoulders, "Fine."

The single word answer was not what the blonde had been hoping for. Not knowing what to do, he fell silent until the whistle blew. Rarely had he been so thankful to hear that sound. The atmosphere was starting to feel oppressive and he was wondering what had changed Konohamaru's mood so dramatically.

Pouring and stirring the hot water in the bowls, he enjoyed the smell that drifted upwards. Realizing he was just stalling, he picked up the two bowls and brought them back to the table, handing one over to his young friend. The two ate in silence, which was unusual for both of them. Eventually, Naruto summed up the courage to ask, "How are you getting along with your uncle?" He didn't know what he could do about it, but he felt the need to know.

"Okay, I guess. At first I didn't like him, but he's kind of cool now." The boy leaned in close, as if he was about to impart a secret, "He said that he used to get into more trouble than you did."

Despite his friends laughter, Naruto frowned, he may be less and less proud of some of the things he had done, but still, he liked being unique. "So, what's bugging you then?

The boy glanced at him with a look he couldn't interpret before turning his attention back to his bowl. Naruto nudged him and after a minute the smaller of the two put his bowl down. "I don't want a new Hokage."

The young teen didn't know what to make of that. "We sort of need one."

Konohamaru hopped off of the table and turned his back on the blonde, "I know. I just don't want there to be one. I don't want people to forget him."

Naruto put his own bowl down, but didn't know what to say. After a second, he slid off the table and put a hand on the smaller shoulder, "I don't think anyone will. Tsunade, the next Hokage, even talked about him and she hadn't seen him in years."

"Really?" the smaller boy looked up at him.

"Yeah," true, she hadn't said anything good about him at first, but he had been her old sensei. "And I'll always remember him. He used to come to the Academy sometimes, and once, two of the kids stole his lunch and he ended up chasing them all over the building as they ate it. So I don't think they will forget him either."

Konohamaru laughed and that made Naruto happy. He searched his memory for another story, preferably a funny one. He told his young friend about the time, during a festival, he had bombed a crowd with water balloons. The old man had been the one to stop him. He had only been seven years old and the sudden shadow that had come over him had almost made him wet his pants.

They passed time like that and the stories eventually became more serious, but even these seemed to cheer Konohamaru up. Eventually, the darker haired boy yawned and Naruto glanced over at the clock. It wasn't particularly late, but then he remembered how tired he had become when he had first tried the tree walking exercise. Looking at his friends eyes he could see how tired he really was.

He was about to suggest that maybe he should go to bed when he remembered who he was dealing with. The kid was a lot like him at that age and he had never wanted to go to bed before curfew, even if he was exhausted. Instead he yawned, although he wasn't particularly tired. "I'm tired. Want to go to bed?

Konohamaru glanced over his shoulder at the table from where they sat on the floor, "We didn't finish our Ramen."

Naruto blinked, having forgotten about the unfinished meal. "It's okay, I'm pretty tired."

They retreated to his bedroom and they both started to change in to their pajamas when Konohamaru suddenly turned to him topless, "We should do something."

"What," Naruto paused, about to drop his boxers, "We don't have to." Even as he said that he could fuel blood rushing to his member.

"Well, I always sleep better afterwords," his friend said grinning at him.

The blonde couldn't really disagree with that and nodded towards the bed. His friend dropped his pajama bottoms and jumped up onto the bed, spreading his legs. He was already hard, his little member sticking straight out. Dropping to his knees, Naruto had an idea and instead of grabbing the little shaft with his hand, he instead grabbed his friend's ankles, which caused Konohamaru to jump in surprise.

With his thumbs and forefinger on either side of his ankle, he used his fingers to tickle the underside of his friend's feet. The boy started giggling and tried to kick him away, "Stop that." Naruto did as he was asked, but didn't let his ankles go. Remembering what he had done with his clone, he guided the little shaft into his mouth with his tongue. Konohamaru, who had only been using his hand in the last month, squirmed as the tongue moved up and down. It didn't take him long to buck and go almost completely slack.

Naruto pulled back, leaving only a thin coat of saliva from where his mouth had been, "I'll get you your pajamas."

"Wait, what about you?"

The older of the two paused. He was hard and was certainly willing, "You don't have to." When he stood, his back was turned to Konohamaru, so he couldn't see his obvious erection. Unfortunately, when he bent over to pick up his friend's pajamas, he heard his bed grown as the younger of the two jumped off of it, and before he knew it, his boxers were pulled down to his ankles. Turning, he saw the younger boy grinning up at him, "It's only fair."

The blonde smiled as the younger grabbed his shaft. They moved back to bed, exchanging the positions they had been in a minute ago. Without hesitation, the younger of the two opened his mouth and put the tip and a little more in his mouth. Konohamaru's tongue flicked along the bottom and even between his little slit.

Naruto groaned under his friends tender ministrations and wondered if the occasional lick up his slit was just an attempt to get rid of pre-come. It took him a little longer, but eventually he said, "I'm coming." Konohamaru pulled back, but only a little and soon he came. The blonde leaned forward, his eyes closed, enjoying his orgasm. Before he could recover he felt Konohamaru jump onto his lap, and in surprise, he opened his eyes to find their faces almost touching.

He opened his mouth to ask what he was doing, but as he did so Konohamaru pushed their mouths together. For a second, the blonde thought he was trying to kiss him again. He felt the smaller tongue invade his mouth and it had a slimy texture to it. Disgusted at the unexpected taste, he pushed the kid away.

To his surprise, Konohamaru was grinning, "Don't tickle my feet."

There was only a lingering taste on his tongue and despite himself he smiled. "All right, I won't do that again if you don't do what you just did." He supposed it wasn't different from tasting stuff from his clone, but he had been prepared for that.

"It doesn't really taste that bad." Konohamaru said grabbing and putting on his pajamas.

Naruto stood to do the same and answered, "Yeah, but I wasn't expecting it."

"Sorry." his friend said sleepily climbing under the covers.

Naruto paused for a second, searching for his little sleeping hat. "It's okay. I actually," he trailed off as he saw Konohamaru was already asleep. He hesitated for a second, wondering if he should join him right away or stay up a little longer. Deciding it would be too much trouble to stay quiet, he slipped into bed. Staring down at his sleeping friend, he had to admit that although the day hadn't started out great it had been good in the end. Now, if only he had some of that sleeping stuff they'd used to knock him out last night, it could be a great day.


	14. Surprise

Naruto woke up early the next morning. He was startled at first to feel a foreign weight lying next to him and then he remembered that he was not alone in his bed. Glancing at the clock he decided to let his friend sleep a little longer and carefully untangled himself from Konohamaru's legs. Climbing out of bed, he could see that the boy had abandoned the pillow altogether and had traveled down the bed during the night.

Quietly leaving the room, he headed for the kitchen to clean up the remnants of last night's meal. He thought about making more Ramen, but settled on cereal. It wasn't until he had poured two bowls full that he realized he didn't have milk. Not easily dissuaded, he grabbed two sodas from the fridge and brought everything back to his bedroom, the bowls on top of each other and the soda cans tucked under one arm.

Putting the bowls on the nightstand, he used his free hand to wake Konohamaru by putting a hand on his back and shaking him gently, "Time to get up." His friend rolled over and smiled up at him groggily.

To make sure he was fully awake, Naruto pushed one can against his cheek which caused the younger to sit up and grab the can from his hand, "Soda for breakfast? You're awesome."

"Yeah, well I don't have milk and were having cereal," the blonde said a little embarrassed and sitting on the bed himself. The two of them talked of random things until they had emptied their bowls. To save time they showered together and they both got dressed. Naruto had never said it out loud, but both were expecting him to walk Konohamaru to the Academy.

As they were slipping on their sandals, Konohamaru looked up and asked, "Will you be free this afternoon?"

"Probably," the blonde said scratching the back of his head, "I kind of have the day off."

"So after the Academy you could help us again?"

"Yeah." he smiled still nervous about it, but as unexpected as it was, he felt a little pride in the three's progress.

They left his apartment chatting about what they were learning at the Academy. He let Konohamaru lead the way and they detoured to pick up his two friends. The four of them all started chatting with each other. This was nice thought Naruto. Even though these kids were younger than him, he felt a part of their group.

When they reached the gates to the Academy there was a part of him that wished he could go in with them. It was not that he ever wished to return to the Academy for any reason, but he did wish that he had been in a group like that when he had been younger.

Naruto had not been completely friendless when he was at the Academy, but Shikamaru, Kiba and Chouji had been more playmates than friends. At times they had raised hell together and that had been fun, but what he felt for these three was much more akin to how he felt for his teammates. Well at least when Sasuke was not being an ass. Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts. It was time for training.

* * *

Catching an ax kick with crossed forearms, Naruto brought his hands together grasping his opponent's leg. Stepping towards the enemy's center of mass and throwing him off balance, he tossed him into the enemy that was trying to sneak up behind him. When the clones collided they both dispersed and the original raised his hands in victory. Earlier, he had promised the winner of the battle a bowl of Ramen and of course he was the last Naruto standing.

There was suddenly the sound of clapping from behind him and the blonde spun, but instantly relaxed when he saw who it was. "Sakura," he felt his cheeks warm, "how long were you there?"

"I saw you take out the last five. Hey, are you still trying to help Konohamaru study?"

"All three sort of." he said wiping his suddenly sweaty palms against his clothes.

"Maybe you could have them practice their taijutsu against your clones. That is if you can control them well enough." she added hurriedly.

"I'll try that. Um, is there a reason you came looking for me?" He wasn't sure why he had asked that, but his fingernails were biting into his palms awaiting the answer.

"The ceremony is about to begin in about ten minutes and I figured you would forget. So I thought I would check out your little private training spot."

"Oh, I forgot about that."To be honest, he had more likely blocked out something he was supposed to do after the ceremony. He had to meet with Konohamaru's uncle and for the life of him he couldn't understand why. After all, the man had allowed his nephew to spend the night last night.

"Are you okay Naruto?"

"What, oh yeah, were you saying something?"

Sakura shook her head and muttered something under her breath before turning and walking away. Her teammate ran to catch up to her and before he could say anything she spoke up, "Sasuke is going to be in the hospital for about a week or at least that's what sensei told me."

"Really, is he hurt?" Naruto had been hospitalized after training himself, but never for so long.

"He strained his chakra system. It's like this; the chakra system is like wiring in a house. Well, Sasuke has pushed himself so hard it is as if he stripped all the insulation off of his wires." Sakura supplied before adding, "I should have done something sooner." Naruto nodded, he was not familiar with stripped wires but if it was anything like brushing up against an empty light socket he could sympathize.

There was already a crowd at their destination and when they spotted the familiar face of Hinata they headed over towards her and her team. He called a greeting to her and she turned greeting both of them. Her face was really red and the blonde wondered if she should be in bed or something.

Before he could voice that opinion, though, a hush fell over the crowd and he looked up at the top of the building. Tsunade stood there in the traditional robes and hat. She gave a brief speech and ended by tearing off the hat and saying she would be known as the Fifth Hokage. The crowd clapped and cheered, and for a second, Naruto imagined himself up there in a few years, receiving the applause.

He was pulled out of his daydream by a rather large hand landing on his shoulder. Glancing up, the blonde swallowed and Asuma smiled down at him, a cigarette between his lips. "You got a few minutes?"

Nodding reluctantly, he said goodbye to Sakura who seemed a little curious at this odd combination. At least that's what it looked like to Naruto when he glanced back over his shoulder and forced a smile. Unfortunately, he still couldn't figure out why this man wanted to talk to him. Their first meeting hadn't gone well, but afterword when Konohamaru was in that hospital bed and he thought the man would be angry at him, he seemed to be okay. So what did he want to talk about?

Entering the park, they walked silently along the paths for a minute before the man sat on an empty park bench and gestured for him to do the same. It was then that the Genin noticed the brown bag the other man was carrying. Placing the bag between them, the man said, "Here, if you two are going to do it you might as well be safe. Not that I'm encouraging anything."

Frowning, the young teen took the bag and opened it. The first thing he saw was something he recognized, the white book that he had given to Asuma during their first meeting. Reaching a hand in, he pushed it aside to see what was under it and only became confused. There were two containers of Vaseline and a bunch of little wrappers. Curious, he picked one up between his fingers and stared at the foil wrapped object. Then he remembered something that Iruka had said and he dropped it startlingly, they were condoms.

The teen's head snapped around to stare at the older man, his eyes wide. Holding up a hand toward the Jonin forestalled his words, "I know, I know, you're not doing that yet, but when you do I want you to have the stuff you know."

At that moment the blonde wished he could transform into a leaf and blow away on the wind. He really didn't want to talk about this or even think about it for that matter. "Um, okay, thanks."

For a second the Genin hoped that this was the end of the conversation and he was about to stand when the older man spoke up again, "He can spend the night at your place. As long as it doesn't affect his homework or interfere with the Academy, and if you too would like, maybe you could spend the night at his place once in a while."

"Okay."

The older man pulled out another cigarette and took a long drag before continuing, "Konohamaru and I have to pay our respects to his grandfather today. Afterwards, I would appreciate it if he could spend the night at your place again. I have a thing and I would feel a lot better if he didn't have to spend the night alone."

"Sure, I like having him over," he felt his face turned hot thinking that the man might take that the wrong way.

"Yeah, he likes you a lot and if it makes him happy I guess that's what is important." There was another uncomfortable silence before he added, "When you were gone he missed you."

Naruto nodded even though the Jonin couldn't see him.

"There's Konohamaru and he brought his friends. Well, I'm going to grab him and I an sure he'll be happy to hear he can spend the night with you, but just one thing." The man stood and Naruto could feel his eyes staring at his head, "Make sure you and Konohamaru are on the same page. There's more than one way to hurt him."

With that cryptic statement to Naruto, he left, leaving him to ponder what he meant. The blonde knew he could never hurt Konohamaru intentionally, so what had his uncle meant by that. His thoughts chased themselves in circles, not making any headway and he was only pulled out of them when two shadows fell over his own. Moegi and Udon stood in front of him, both acting a little nervous, "Hey," he said smiling up at them.

"Naruto," she started shifting her feet and then blurted out, "Can you play with us?"

Naruto blinked for a second and then his grin widened, "Sure." He stood, grateful for the distraction. That was until Udon spoke up.

"What's in the bag?"

The blonde had almost forgotten about it and he stepped between Udon and the bag, waving his arms. "It's just some stuff."

"Like what?" Udon asked innocently.

The blonde bit his lip wishing that damned bag would just disappear and then he had an idea so brilliant he had to compliment himself. "It's nothing important," and as he spoke he created a clone which grabbed the bag and ran off with it. It was supposed to hide it someplace in his apartment. The original tapped Udon on the head saying, "You're it."

* * *

Playing with two thirds of the Konohamaru core was not that different than playing with the full set. Still, when they were playing tag he couldn't help but notice that he didn't have to hold back as much to keep the game interesting. When tag became boring they moved on to other games and he even tried out Sakura's idea for Taijutsu practice. Udon seemed to enjoy this more than Moegi, but the three ended the day under a tree just talking.

When they had to go he headed home, only stopping to pick up milk. As much as he tried to stay in the good mood his two little friends had put him in, Asuma's words came back to him. His fists clenched. He wouldn't hurt Konohamaru and he had no intention of ever using the stuff he had given him. Why couldn't his uncle understand that? He loved Konohamaru.

The blond stopped dead in his tracks as that thought hit him. Up until now, he had never really thought how weird that word was. He would never admit it to anyone, but he had loved the Third like how he thought somebody might love their grandfather. He loved Iruka like a father or at least what he imagined one would be like. So what did he feel for Konohamaru?

He was more than a friend. Moegi, Udon and even Sasuke were friends. Konohamaru was something more, something more like a brother. Yes, a little brother. Someone he wanted to protect, to help and more importantly to be happy.

Then he thought of the last type of love he knew. He loved Sakura like a girlfriend. In a way, though, that wasn't much different than what he felt for Konohamaru. He wanted her to be happy and he wanted to hug her, kiss her and do other things that made him blush just thinking about. If it wasn't for Asuma's words he would never have made the next jump. Could Konohamaru have confused the two? After all, they were doing stuff together and it wasn't like he would do that with just anyone.

That thought bothered him and he rushed home suddenly feeling a need to look at the book. Upon entering the apartment, he threw the milk in the fridge and immediately headed for the cabinet under his sink. At that moment he was incredibly grateful to Jiraiya for mentioning the clone thing to him earlier. He still found it weird to receive a clone's memory, but at least he wouldn't have to tear apart his apartment looking for where the clone might have stashed the book.

He scanned the book nervously, but the more he read the more he relaxed. The book rarely used the word love, but on occasion it did. He relaxed a little and now that his mind was out of frantic mode he was able to think a little more clearly. Konohamaru's uncle cared for him, of that he had no doubt. However, that didn't necessarily mean he knew everything about him. He decided that he could just have a simple talk with his young friend and he could put his mind at ease. Almost as an afterthought, he decided no more kissing, even if it was for practice.

About twenty minutes later, he heard his lock being picked and the door opening. Konohamaru came in grinning and joined him in the kitchen. Although Naruto had intended to talk to him right away, it just didn't seem like the right time. Instead, he listened to his friend's account of the day and his visit to a shrine just outside of the village. After that, he brought out three rounded magnets from the set Naruto had given him for his birthday and showed him a few tricks.

Konohamaru had a little homework to do and Naruto looked it over in the kitchen, but either it was perfect or he just didn't see the mistakes. After that they played War with a deck of cards that Iruka had given him for his eleventh birthday. It was the first time they were being used, and as it became dark out, Naruto asked, "So, your uncle has a mission tonight?"

The younger boy looked at him as if he had grown a second head before he broke into laughter. "A mission," he said once he had calmed down, "He's on a date." A smile tugged at the blondes lips even as he felt a flush of embarrassment. Konohamaru came over, still grinning, and hopped into his lap, "Hey, you think we could." he trailed off.

Naruto felt a stirring in his pants and he answered, "Sure." before remembering he wanted to have a talk with his friend. Unfortunately, the boy had already darted off to the bedroom, and again, he thought it just wasn't the right moment as he followed him.

Konohamaru was waiting by the bed, a grin splitting his face, "Sit down." Naruto did so slightly reluctant and his friend stood in front of him. With no preamble, the boy pulled off his shirt, exposing his chest. Then, with another quick movement, he dropped his pants and kicked them to the side, leaving him with only a pair of large purple boxers on. His little head poked through the flap, already becoming erect. The Academy student then slipped his hands into his waistband and lowered them slowly. Once the band passed his butt they fell down his legs. Spinning, he stepped out of them and finished with a grin, his hands clasped behind him.

The older teen was embarrassingly hard and he grinned stupidly just looking at the younger one until his friend said, "Your turn."

Snapping out of his trance, he unzipped his jacket while pulling it off and tossing it over his shoulder. He yanked off the T-shirt underneath it, exposing his chest to the air. "What's that?" Konohamaru asked pointing to his chest.

Looking down, the blonde saw the necklace he had won from Tsunade. Grinning, he answered, "I won this from the new Hokage when she lost a bet to me."

"Cool." Konohamaru said stepping forward and taking the crystal between two fingers. Naruto was pretty sure that it wouldn't break, but he gently took it back before taking it off and putting it around one of his bed posts. Even though they had been interrupted he could still see that Konohamaru was hard as was he. Then, he slipped his boxers off with his pants and they were both nude.

For a second, they just stared at each other until the younger hopped up onto his lap with his legs spread and touched their two smaller heads together. The blonde thought it felt weird, but good, and he couldn't break his gaze from the sight. That was why he didn't notice Konohamaru leaning in until their lips came into contact. He was frozen and pulled back, holding his younger friend at a distance.

The thirds grandson almost looked hurt by the action and he quickly moved to explain, "I think we shouldn't do that anymore."

"Why?"

Naruto felt a little guilty at his friend's hurt expression, but it didn't change his mind. "Well, I think kissing is something you should only do with the girl you really like, okay?" The boy nodded and he hugged him and said, "We're friends and I'll do anything you want, but no kissing."

They stayed like that and it was Konohamaru who broke it first. He leaned back, readjusting his position by swinging his legs around Naruto and hooking his ankles together behind him. He then reached down between them and pulled up the older erection. He scooted closer, keeping his arms around him. There erections came into contact and he rested his chin on the older shoulder.

The blonde liked the feeling of the younger scrotum against his shaft and he allowed his hands to drift down to the younger's butt before lifting him. The friction that provided felt good and he lowered him only to push him back up again. After a few times of that, his arms were feeling a little tired and the next time he lowered him he simply started thrusting against him. After a moment, Konohamaru joined him going in the opposite way and the two quickly fell into a rhythm which allowed Konohamaru's soft, but firm, scrotum to move up and down the entire length of Naruto shaft.

This went on for several minutes and both of them broke into a sweat. Then, Konohamaru's legs tightened around him as did his arms and a second later he gasped. Naruto climax a second later, shooting his sperm between the two of them. They hung onto each other for a few minutes, just panting and enjoying the afterglow. The sticky mess between the two of them was starting to bother Naruto and he picked his partner up and carried him to the bathroom. When he put him down, the white stuff almost acted like glue.

The blonde grabbed the toilet paper and cleaned Konohamaru first. When clean, his younger friend lowered the seat on the toilet and sat down and watched as his older friend cleaned himself. His eyes were slits and Naruto left the room to grab their pajamas. Naruto ended up carrying him back to the bed where the older of the two quickly fell asleep, joined shortly thereafter by his young friend.

* * *

Naruto woke suddenly to a strange, but familiar sensation. Cracking his eyes open, it took him a second to focus and when they did he smiled. Konohamaru's head was bobbing up and down on his morning wood. His younger friend must have sensed that he had woken him because he looked up and smiled around the organ in his mouth.

The blonde rested his head back on the pillow, enjoying waking up to this instead of his alarm clock. Unfortunately, the familiar tingling sensation came all too soon this early in the morning. Picking his head back up to look down at his younger friend, he said, "It's coming."

As he said those words, Konohamaru pulled back, keeping only the head in his mouth. Seconds later, the blonde felt his seed leave his body and he inhaled sharply, arching at the pleasant sensation. When the peak passed, he looked down again just in time to see his young friend with his eyes closed swallow his load. "You swallowed?" Naruto questioned, not believing his eyes.

The younger boy wiped his hand across his lips although there was nothing there and looked up at him smiling. "It's not so bad. I've been swallowing that pre-cum stuff and it can't be much different."

Naruto made a face at the thought, remembering his own experience, but then his friend sat up showing off his tent and he knew he had a favor to repay. As he sat up, though, there was a knock at his door and they both froze. So far, every time there had been a knock at his apartment's door when they were together it had turned out to be, universally, a bad thing.

Unfortunately, Naruto knew ignoring it wouldn't make the problem go away and he swung out of bed making sure his fly was buttoned up. He heard Konohamaru right behind him and he looked just in time to see him tucking his little problem under his waistband of his pajamas. Reaching the door, he took one deep breath before opening it.

Shikamaru was standing on the other side of the door and before Naruto could ask what was up the young Chunin spoke. "Sometime last night, Sasuke Uchiha was either taken from his hospital room or left with enemy agents. I've been assigned to go after them and have been given permission to recruit any Genin I can find." He blinked seeing the other boy for the first time, "Why is he here?"

* * *

Authors note: I apologize that this chapter took so long to get out.


	15. The End

Shikamaru refused to answer any of Naruto's questions until he assembled the entire team, he said, "It would be troublesome to answer the same questions again." Instead, he peppered Naruto with questions about Konohamaru. At first, the blonde thought that he might suspect something, but as it turned out Asuma had been using his genin team for babysitting duty while he was gone. They arrived at Chouji's before Naruto could get any details and their recruiting began.

Soon, they had gathered a squad of five or six depending on how you looked at it. Shikamaru, the only chunin, started the briefing. "As you know, Sasuke Uchiha either left the village or was taken by force last night."

"Yeah, what exactly happened," Kiba asked and Akamaru yelped, seconding the question.

"Sasuke had been hospitalized after over exerting himself in training," Shikamaru answered. "The entire floor of the hospital he was on was put to sleep by a genjutsu. His room looks as if there had been a struggle, but we simply don't know what exactly happened."

"He couldn't put up a fight. He wasn't allowed to use his chakra," Naruto said in his defense, not liking what Shikamaru had implied.

"Well, no matter what, Sasuke is a fellow Leaf ninja and our mission is to bring him back. We don't know how large the group is that has taken him. Still, he's a comrade. Now, everyone take your positions and move out."

The Sasuke retrieval team departed in the early morning hours. They caught up with their quarry a few hours later and both teams were forced to leave behind one of their members. That set the pattern. They would catch up to the team from Sound, and again, they would have to leave a member behind.

When night fell, Naruto suggested an attack to Shikamaru, but even after explaining about his ability to receive clones memories, the Chunin still rated it as too risky. The blonde fell back and waited for dawn to attack. When the time came, they came heartbreakingly close to success. They had Sasuke. Shikamaru's plan had worked. Naruto could feel his weight in the barrel, but then tragedy struck.

First, Kiba and Akamaru were blown over the cliff. Before Naruto could really register what had just happened a figure landed silently on the barrel behind him and snatched Sasuke away. The pale teen had snuck up on them silently like a ghost. With victory so close at hand, he didn't think and attacked. The lone female made him pay for his spur of the moment action with a punch to the jaw that sent him reeling.

Shikamaru caught him and told him to calm down. As the pale teen withdrew with Sasuke, the Chunin told him his plan. Naruto instantly liked it as it had him going after the fleeing enemy and it relied on trickery. Once put into action, it went off without a hitch and really, who used a musical instrument as a weapon? Shikamaru would be fine, he was sure of it, but if he didn't catch up with this guy Sasuke wouldn't be.

As Naruto chased him down he could feel the Kyuubi's power start to flow through him, but instinctively he held it back. That became incredibly difficult as his opponent stopped in a grassy field and spoke about Orochimaru. He heard the respect in the words as the man spoke and it angered him. Worse was the way he referenced Sasuke as if he was just a piece of meat.

His anger allowed him to create a hundred clones, but even a mass shuriken attack did nothing. The man simply swatted them away with those bone swords of his. It angered him. Then, a thought pushed its way through his anger. It was the part of his mind that had been developed by creating training games for the Konohamaru core.

When he created those games he had two goals in mind, to train and have fun, but one of those was more important. He wanted to defeat this person for so many reasons. However, it was more important to rescue Sasuke and he would sacrifice defeating this bastard to rescue him. The plan he formed was simple and he put it into effect immediately.

First, he ordered his clones to attack in rapid succession, but one at a time. While he was temporarily distracted by cutting down the clones and as his vision was obscured by the smoke of their destruction, three other clones made their move. The first picked up the barrel Sasuke was in and darted into the woods as another transformed itself into the barrel and was placed right where the original had been.

The action was done swiftly and it seemed to have gone unnoticed. That was when Naruto initiated stage two. Summoning all the chakra he could, he created as many clones as possible. This time a larger group attacked the pale faced teen and the original Naruto slipped into the woods unnoticed. The clone that had escaped with the real Sasuke traveled for about a mile before setting him down and destroying himself.

The original Naruto received the exact location and beelined toward it. Once he had the barrel in his hands, his only goal was to get back home. His opponent was left with a field full of clones to destroy and the blonde tried to receive their memories. At first he seemed content to only destroy them when they attacked him, but soon he started to cut them down like a sickle through wheat.

Maybe it was the distance or just the amount of memory he was receiving, but the hyperactive ninja was starting to feel as if his head was spinning. He was wholly unprepared for the green blur that darted in front of him and then collided, sending both of them reeling.

Naruto rubbed his head as he sat up looking over at who he collided with, "Bushy Brows?"

The spandex wearing Genin jumped to his feet and shouted, "Naruto, I've come to assist you in your noble mission."

Despite the situation, for a moment, he was happy to see Lee fully recovered and back to, what was for him, his normal self. Then, he remembered how fast his opponent he had left back in the field was cutting through his clones. "Are you really better? Can you run? Are you wearing your weights?" The older ninja nodded and Naruto ran over to where Sasuke's barrel had fallen on its side and righted it. He felt the weight shift inside and he hoped the barrel wasn't upside down. Even if Sasuke was sleeping, he would have a killer headache if he had been upside down the entire time.

"Drop your weights and take this back to Konoha, Sasuke is inside."

"But," Lee hesitated for a second before reaching down and pulling off his weights. Being this close, when they hit the ground it felt like a small earthquake. He picked up the barrel but before he left he asked, "You're not coming?"

Naruto was unable to hold back a grin as he shook his head and formed a familiar hand sign. In a puff of smoke, seven more Naruto's appeared and half of them immediately transformed into identical barrels, "I'm going to be a diversion."

The green clad Genin looked at him for a second and then he smiled as widely as Naruto and gave him a thumbs-up. "Naruto, your youthful energy is a shining beacon to others."

"Thanks, I think." he quietly added.

Lee turned, and with a burst of speed that would be impossible for him, disappeared into the woods. Naruto started after him while his other clones went off in different directions. He hoped that the enemy would be thrown off by the multiple trails, and even if they did pick the right one they would still have to go through him and the blonde had no intention of letting that happen.

His remaining clones were quickly being dispatched and by that time the enemy knew he had been tricked. Naruto had put a lot of distance between him and the field he had first taken Sasuke back in, but was it enough? Time inched by and in the distance he could see a storm approaching. He wondered how far he was away from home and he started to wonder about the other members of the team. None of them had ever been able to catch up, but neither had the enemy.

As he was leaping to the next branch, something shot past him and pain shot up from his leg. The Genin crashed to the ground and he heard something snap and felt pain shoot from his wrist. His clone, still disguised as a barrel, hit the ground next to him and rolled away. Grabbing his broken wrist, he tried to hold it still and glanced down at his thigh. Blood poured from a deep wound. Letting go of his wrist he tried to staunch the flow of blood and glanced up at his enemy.

The Sound ninja stared down at him, but he had changed. His skin was darker and bones protruded from his back. He had a tail and one of his arms was covered in a spiraled bone covering that had Naruto's blood on it. "It seems I found the real one." From his perch, he looked down upon him, "You're smarter than I first gave you credit for, but you'll bleed out soon."

Naruto clenched his teeth at the man's words more than the pain. The blood flowing from between his fingers was slowing and he hoped that was from the Kyuubi healing him and not just because he was running out of blood. This was not good. With his wrist broken he wasn't sure if he could do hand signs, and unless the Fur Ball picked up the healing he wasn't going to be standing anytime soon. Oddly though, even as he realized this, it didn't worry him as much as he knew it should. Maybe it was the blood loss.

Without another word, the man jumped down from the branch, landing next to the barrel. For a second, Naruto thought the man would take it and be off. That would be great because it would be the best prank ever. For a second, the teen stood over the barrel and then brought his spear arm down to destroy the clone.

"You handed him off to one of your clones. That's unexpected, but I will not fail Lord Orochimaru. When I kill you your clones will be destroyed."

Death came towards Naruto, but that was not what he had his eyes on. There was sand swirling behind his opponent. At first, it had just been a small cloud, hardly noticeable. Now, it reached out and grabbed the others legs. The teen tried to spin around and swatted the sand with his bone spear. As he attempted to turn, the sound of a thousand chirping birds filled the air. Kakashi darted out from seemingly nowhere, thrusting a chidori through the teen's chest. Naruto's last thought, before he lost consciousness, was "What a strange hallucination."

* * *

The all-too-familiar smell of antiseptic filled Naruto's nose as he returned to consciousness. He was in the hospital, again. His eyes cracked open and there was the paneled ceiling he remembered from his last visit.

"Naruto, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

The blonde turned his head towards the voice of Sakura. His teammate was sitting in a chair next to his bed. The sight of her made him forget about his broken wrist and he tried to sit up before wincing with pain.

"Don't move, your wrist is broken and you lost a lot of blood."

"What happened? Is Sasuke okay? What about everyone else?"

Her expression fell for a second, but she recovered quickly. "Chouji and Neji are in serious condition, but are expected to make it. Kiba and Akamaru were hurt, but not seriously. Shikamaru wasn't really hurt."

The longer she went without saying anything about Sasuke the more nervous Naruto became, "What about Sasuke?"

"We don't know yet," she smiled and said with false confidence even Naruto could see through, "Tsunade herself is working on him and she is the best Medical-nin Konoha has ever produced."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the two of them and Naruto tried to remember what he last saw. For a second, it almost seemed as if Gaara and his sensei had been working together. That didn't make much sense to him though, since Gaara was in another country. Something must have happened though, but at the moment he was too tired to care.

The door to his room swung open and Kakashi stepped in. Even with only his single eye exposed, Naruto could tell something was wrong. "I'm sorry Naruto. When I ran into Lee and he told me what you were doing, I thought Gaara and I should shadow you and intercept the enemy when he tried to attack. We were too slow though."

Naruto gave him a genuine grin, "It's okay and the mission was a success, right?"

For the first time since Naruto had known him, Kakashi looked down. "Sensei, is Sasuke." Sakura broke off as he looked up.

"Sasuke Uchiha," he paused, "Died several hours ago, from an overexertion of his chakra system. He seemed to have been given something to enhance his chakra system, but he was exhausted and his body could not handle it."He looked up at them, "I'm sorry."

Naruto heard the words, but at first they didn't seem real. Sasuke dead, that simply wasn't possible. He heard a muffled sob and slowly turned to face Sakura. She had buried her head in her hands and doubled over. After a minute, he reached out with his good hand and placed it on her back, trying to comfort her, even as he tried to accept it.

* * *

The funeral was held the next day in the afternoon and Naruto was released from the hospital so that he could attend. For only the second time, he put on his funeral clothes and for the first time he headed to the cemetery. The funeral was large, but he hardly recognized anyone. Besides himself, Shikamaru and Lee were the only member of the retrieval team that could attend. The team leader said something to Naruto, but the blonde immediately forgot it.

Naruto didn't remember much of anything from the funeral itself. A lot of people had come to mourn the passing of the last Uchiha, and even given this atmosphere, a few rumors started to go around that it may have been an attempted defection. Fortunately, the young Genin remained ignorant of the rumors, as his world shrunk to include only himself. He retreated to his apartment after the funeral and collapsed into bed staring up at the ceiling.

Naruto did not remember drifting off to sleep, but the next day he was awoken by the sounds of the village waking up. With his funeral clothes still on, he went to the window and stared down at the people moving about. It seemed wrong. Didn't they know Sasuke was dead? Shouldn't that change something? Shouldn't something be different? It was only then that he accepted the fact, Sasuke Uchiha, his teammate, his rival, his friend, was dead. That realization made him go back to bed and he reminded himself that a ninja couldn't cry. Hours passed and he just stared blankly up at the ceiling.

When a knock came at his door, he was tempted to ignore it. Before leaving the hospital, Tsunade had informed him he had a week of bereavement leave. So it couldn't be a mission. However, something compelled him to get out of bed and open the door. It wasn't just one person at his door, but three.

Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi stood outside of his door. All three were nervous and Naruto forced a sad smile, "Hi guys, I'm sorry, but I'm not really in the mood to play right now."

He was about to close the door when Konohamaru spoke up, "We wanted to see if you were okay."

Naruto was about to say he was fine, but as he opened his mouth he saw his black sleeve. Had he not changed? The funeral had been yesterday. Instead of lying, the blonde stepped aside, inviting the three in. They shuffled in wordlessly and kicked off their sandals. It was only at that moment that Naruto realized he was still wearing his sandals from last night.

His apartment really didn't have a place for such a large group to sit, so Konohamaru led them to his bedroom and they sat on the bed in a circle. None of them spoke for a minute and Naruto ended up breaking the silence. "So, how's the Academy?"

"Good." Moegi answered.

"We're doing the Survival Challenge next week." Konohamaru added.

"That's nice." Naruto said mechanically.

There was a moment of silence before Udon added, "I'm kind of scared about it. I never slept anywhere but home."

"Me either." Moegi added.

Naruto thought back on his own Survival Challenge. He had been stuck with two kids he didn't remember the names of now, but had been more nervous than scared and had not slept well in the tent. Looking up, his gaze drifted towards Konohamaru and he suddenly realized that his friend was concerned. The Genin thought about how he had been acting. It wasn't right, he was a ninja, and death was part of their trade. What type of example was he setting?

"You three will do fine." he smiled and added, "I'll ask Iruka if I can be in charge of your team."

"That would be awesome." Konohamaru said smiling.

"Let me tell you about my Survival Challenge." Naruto said. He told them about his uneventful Survival Challenge. That conversation led into other things, and before he knew it, they had to head home for the day. Konohamaru lingered, but even he went home sensing that he was doing better.

Naruto had not forgotten about Sasuke, but before the three had visited him he had been stuck. Now, shaking free, he felt the need to bathe. As he sat soaking in the tub, Sasuke again entered his thoughts, and this time, he felt a flare of anger towards Orochimaru. He promised himself that he would skin that snake. If it hadn't been for him, Sasuke would still be here.

Getting out of the tub and dressed, he was still thinking what he was going to do to the old snake when he stepped into the hallway and realized he wasn't alone in his apartment. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar patch of red and white on his balcony, "Jiraiya."

The older man turned to face him, his mouth full of noodles and an instant ramen cup in his hand. "I let myself in, didn't think you would mind."

"Is that my ramen?" Naruto demanded stomping towards him.

"Hey, I've been traveling all day."

"And you think that gives you the right to my food?" he tried to sound angry, but really wasn't.

Jiraiya's only response was a loud slurp as he finished the cup. Placing the chopsticks inside the empty cup, he leaned back on the railing and looked down at Naruto, his expression serious. "Your teammate, I'm sorry." Naruto looked down at his feet and said nothing as the Pervy Sage continued, "I'm not sure, if I should tell you this."

"What?" the blonde demanded when the other didn't continue.

The other man looked into the distance, "I just came back from Orochimaru's hideout. It was completely destroyed." he looked back down at Naruto. "From the damage, it looks like Itachi paid him a visit."

The young teen stared up at him disbelievingly, "What? When?" he stuttered out.

"Probably around the same time your mission was coming to an end." He paused for a second before saying, "There's more. A few miles away from the site there were some more signs of battle. I'm guessing when Itachi finished off Orochimaru he was ambushed by some Akatsuki members. I can't read the signs of battle there to well, but I'm guessing they finally got him."

Naruto scratched the back of his head. He didn't understand why Itachi would go to Orochimaru's hideout, but because he was responsible for Sasuke's death, he didn't really care. As for Sasuke's brother, well he was kind of responsible too.

"The Akatsuki has lost four members now. I'm trying to convince Tsunade to go after them more actively, but I'm not sure if that's possible right now. This brings me to what I really want to talk to you about. The Akatsuki won't be able to come after you for a while. We need to use this time to get you as strong as possible. I want you to come on a training trip with me for a year or two. When we're done you'll be a respectable ninja," he finished with a grin.

Naruto had been bombarded with information, but all he heard right then was training. "When would we go?"

"I would like to go as soon as possible. Figure a day for goodbyes if you want."

"All right." Naruto answered thinking about how strong he could become.

"Well then, till then." Jiraiya left in a way only a ninja could, by running down the side of the building.

The Genin retreated back into his apartment and made himself dinner thinking about who he had to say goodbye to. The list wasn't long. Kakashi, obviously, he was his team leader and sensei. Then there was Sakura of course and Iruka sensei. That only left Konohamaru and his two friends. At first he thought he could do the three all at once, but as he lied in his bed, he remembered a warmth that was sometimes next to him and he knew he had to tell Konohamaru first.

His alarm clock awoke him early the next day and he headed for Konohamaru's home, hoping he could take him out for early morning breakfast. When he arrived, he found out that the two were just about to eat breakfast, but his little friend preferred ramen over cereal any day. Asuma let him go, but reminded him to take his backpack for the Academy.

Ichiraku had just opened up and the two were their first customers for the day. When Naruto sat on the stool he realized he should probably say goodbye to the old man and his daughter. After all, without him eating there, there would probably be a decrease in their profits, but first he had to tell Konohamaru.

They chatted for a few minutes and his younger friend turned towards him and smiled as he said, "My uncle is going to be gone for three days next week. Maybe you could stay at my place while he's gone."

The blonde paused with his ramen halfway to his mouth before putting it back in the bowl. "Konohamaru, I'm going on a trip."

"Oh, well when will you be back?"

Taking a deep breath the teen said, "A year or two." Naruto wasn't sure what he was expecting, but silence from Konohamaru was not it. He risked a glance over at his friend.

He was just staring at him. Then Konohamaru dropped his chopsticks and turned while jumping off of his stool and ran away, his backpack making a thudding sound with every step. Naruto stood and shouted, "Konohamaru!" For a second he thought about going after him, but then thought better of it. He would catch him when he came out of the Academy today.

Naruto spent the day training in his private area or at least he tried. After getting bashed on the head by four different clones, he decided to work on his target practice. He tried to write off his bad aim to his wrist not being completely healed, but he wasn't even feeling a twinge from it. He kept seeing the hurt expression on Konohamaru's face.

Giving up on training, he ended up waiting outside the Academy for more than twenty minutes before the students were let out. Naruto was not sure what to say to Konohamaru, but he didn't want to leave him like that. When Moegi and Udon stepped out of the gate, he pounced on them before they even noticed him. "Where's Konohamaru?"

The two looked at each other before Moegi said, "Konohamaru was absent today, we thought he was sick."

Fear gripped Naruto as he suddenly remembered Sasuke, but he shook that off. Konohamaru was more likely pouting someplace then kidnapped. He quickly ran through a list of places he knew Konohamaru went to, but dismissed them all. Konohamaru was angry at him so he wouldn't be over at his apartment and he couldn't have headed home simply because his uncle was there. So where else would he go?

The answer was staring him in the face, or more exactly, staring down at him, the Hokage Monument. He took off with only a, "Thanks," over his shoulder.

In his haste to check out the only spot he could think Konohamaru would go, he bumped into several people before leaving the streets altogether. Even though he was in a rush, he did have the forethought to be stealthier when he started his climb up the stairs. The last thing Naruto needed was Konohamaru spotting him and running away.

When he saw the boy sitting on his grandfather's head, he was relieved and angry. Naruto's approach went unnoticed until his shadow fell over the smaller boy which caused him to look up.

"Hey." Konohamaru looked away as if he wasn't there. At a loss of what to do, Naruto sat down next to him. The two were silent until the blonde spoke again, "You skipped today."

"What do you care." Konohamaru snapped, standing up and throwing his backpack over his shoulder.

"Come on." he grabbed for his friend's shoulder, but was shaken off.

"I don't want to talk to you. Go away!"

"Why are you so upset?" Naruto demanded.

"You said you were going to take us on our Survival Challenge. You lied." the younger of the two said pulling away.

The blonde stood there shocked for a second, he had forgotten about that. Taking several large steps he stepped in front of Konohamaru. "Listen, I'm sorry. I honestly forgot about that, but I'm sure I can stick around for that."

The younger boy glared up at him with his eyes full of tears, "You're leaving me. Everybody leaves me. My dad left, my mom, my grandfather and now you. Nobody cares about me."

For a second, Naruto was angry because he counted Konohamaru among his friends, but then he realized that the first three people he had named had all died. "I'm coming back and you still have your friends."

"No, that's different. I just, I just want something that doesn't change."

Naruto would always rely on his gut to make split-second decisions and he wasn't sure what influenced his decision just then. Maybe it was something as simple as Konohamaru crying because of him or the realization that his friend didn't really have much that was stable in his life. He had been pretty much a loner before Naruto had met him and his grandfather, who had been the one person who took care of him, had only died recently. Whatever the reason was when he said, "If you don't want me to go, I won't go," Konohamaru hugged him and cried.

The next few days were rough on Naruto. Jiraiya wasn't happy about his sudden decision. He kept trying to talk him out of it until the day of the Survival Challenge. That day, Konohamaru, Udon and Moegi drew a lot of attention to themselves. As he promised, Naruto was their team leader and because he had been reading Sakura's notes from the Academy, he had a pretty good idea of what to do.

When they were ambushed, the three quickly pulled out their Pudding Pudding Technique, which managed to shock most of the sensei's turned attackers. When they were still stunned at what they were seeing the three attacked with confidence that was unusual for their age. Moegi was the one that impressed everyone though by running up a tree and kicking one of the attackers in the head.

After that, they managed to reach the top of the mountain and made it all the way back down before setting up camp for the night. The exercise was called short because of the weather, but they had left an impression. Naruto had a little explaining to do, but no one could argue with their accomplishments. After that, Jiraiya seemed to understand his decision and cut him a deal. He would train him, but would not take him away from the village more than a few weeks at a time.

Time passed and Naruto did grow stronger, as did the Konohamaru core. When they graduated from the Academy one year early, he made it a point to teach each of them the Rasengan as a graduation present. When what was left of the Akatsuki made its move, it was defeated turn after turn by Naruto. It wouldn't be until several years later, when Iwagakure threatened war, that the Konohamaru core came to prominence. With Naruto providing a distraction, the three penetrated deep into the Land of Earth and raised enough hell that any thoughts of expansion were derailed.

As for Naruto and Konohamaru, they continued their relationship for several years, but like the little white book said. there was a time for that part of their relationship to end. It was not marked on the calendar, but at one point they stopped sharing the others bed.

* * *

15 years later

Naruto walked into a bar, scanning it for the person he had come to meet. Konohamaru was sitting in a corner and waved him over as soon as he saw him. Stopping at the counter to purchase a beer, he headed over to the table and sat down with a casual, "Hey."

Konohamaru took a sip from his own beer, before putting his hand into his pocket and pulling out a small box, which he tossed to the older man, "Take a look at this."

Catching the small felt box, Naruto thumbed it open and whistled, "So, you think she'll say yes."

"Well according to Udon, who heard it from Hanabi, if I don't ask her soon, she's going to ask me."

Naruto grinned, thinking that Moegi had already asked him, if in a roundabout way. "At least you know the answer. The first time I asked Sakura to marry me she turned me down," he paused and took a sip from his beer before adding, "Of course, I think we were about eight at the time." They both laughed and Naruto gestured towards the beer in his friend's hand, "So if you know the answer, what's up with the liquid courage? You really should ask her sober, you know?"

The younger of the two looked down at the beer in his hand, almost seeming surprised that it was there. "Oh, that's not why. I mean, yeah I'm trying to get the courage to do something, but I'm not asking her tonight."

"Okay, is there something I can do to help?" Naruto questioned a bit nervous.

"Not here." Konohamaru answered and then quickly added. "You'll attend the ceremony, right? I mean, I know it's supposed to only be family, but you're like family." Naruto nodded. Traditionally, only family members were supposed to attend the wedding ceremony, but he hadn't had any and had asked Konohamaru to stand in for them for his own.

"You know," the blonde said with a grin. "Since you're finally getting married, we could time it so we could have kids at the same time. They could grow up together."

"Yeah," Konohamaru grinned while adding, "I could convince Udon to have a kid around the same time and then all three of them could even be on a Genin team together."

"Doesn't Hanabi have more influence over him now than you?"

For a second his friend grinned like the mischievous nine-year-old he used to be, "I happen to know she wants a large family. With Hanabi's help we can quadruple team him." They both laughed.

Finishing their beers, they left, neither were much for drinking. For a while, they walked the streets side by side in silence. Seeing Konohamaru from the corner of his eye, he suddenly imagined him as the eight-year-old boy he had first met. The honorable grandson had been such a brat at first, but he really couldn't hold it against him.

They had been a lot alike. Back then, most people hadn't seen them for the person they were. He was simply a Jinchuriki and Konohamaru had been the grandson of the leader. People looked at them in the shadows of giants, and really, was it any wonder they had gravitated towards each other? Granted, he had never thought about it like that when he was younger, but at some level he must've known.

Passing by the entrance to the park, Konohamaru pulled him inside and Naruto went unresisting. The park was empty at this hour and they ended up sitting on a bench overlooking a pond. They were silent for a second and Naruto was starting to wonder why his friend was so reticent when he broke the silence.

"I've got a favor to ask of you, but feel free to say no."

"Anything, you know that Konohamaru."

"Yeah," he shifted uncomfortably, "Well about a week ago, Moegi and I were talking. We told each other about our previous relationships. She's had a few boyfriends, and well, I only had two one night stands." He paused again and added, "I didn't tell her about you though, and the stuff we used to do."

One of the strongest ninja in history felt his stomach plunge as he realized what his friend was asking, "You want to tell her?" he had phrased it as a question, but he knew the answer.

"Yeah, if she hadn't had asked I wouldn't have thought about it, but I kind of feel like I'm lying to her now."

"I get it. It's fine with me."

He stood to leave when Konohamaru grabbed his sleeve. "Naruto, those are happy memories for me, all of them, and Moegi knows you well enough that she won't think anything bad about you or anything. You're still a hero to us after all."

"Thanks." as he left he really wasn't concerned how Moegi would react. He only had a single regret from back then. It wasn't Sasuke or the relationship with Konohamaru as a whole. While, officially, Sasuke had been kidnapped, he had little doubt that the kid had gone willingly now. As for the relationship with Konohamaru, in the end, it had all turned out well. The one thing that bothered him though, was the fact that he failed to realize that Konohamaru had harbored a crush on him for years.

If things had been a little different, if he had been a little different, things would be so different now. He loved Konohamaru, but like one loves a brother. If he had been capable of loving someone of the same sex, they would've probably ended up together. It was probably better in the long run that had not happened though. Konohamaru had clan responsibilities to live up to and it would've been even worse if they had broken up over that. Still, he wondered sometimes.

* * *

Authors Note : well that's the end. Just some quick things. I have closed the poll and it seems most of you agree with me that if Naruto messes around with a clone it's both. Personally I think it would matter if he received the clones memories or not. I put up a new poll so take a look. As for the Inari story, I'm going to write it next. Update counting this story I now have seven stories on my profile so feel free to check them out. One of them A Darker World is also a Naruto/Konohamaru story. it starts out a little darker, but I can't write like that for too long. So check them out please.


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